Canfax analyst says outlook
for calf prices is strong
DEMAND REMAINS  While drought and high feed prices are pushing down

WINTER WHEAT  Worst

U.S. cow herd numbers, the country’s beef exports are soaring and
domestic prices are expected to stay strong

conditions on record;
up to a quarter could
be abandoned

BY DANIEL WINTERS
STAFF

STAFF

I

f you’re mulling whether to buy calves
to put on grass this spring, keep in
mind that there’s a great big red blob
of uncertainty looming over the market.
To see it, go to the U.S. Drought Monitor website at droughtmonitor.unl.edu.
The map on the home page shows much
of the Midwestern Corn Belt and major
cattle-producing states is coloured red
or rust red — the colours assigned to the
two worst drought categories. It is also the
region that sucked up huge quantities of

T

he United States government declared much of the
central and southern U.S.
Wheat Belt a natural disaster area
on Jan. 9 due to persistent drought
that imperils this year’s winter
wheat harvest.
In its first disaster declaration of
the new year, the U.S. Agriculture
Department (USDA) made growers in large portions of four major
wheat-growing states — Kansas,
Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas
— eligible for low-interest emergency loans.
The four states grew one-third
of the U.S. wheat crop last year.
Kansas was the No. 1 state at 382
million bushels.
In all, USDA listed 597 counties in 14 states as natural disaster areas. They suffered from at
least severe to in some instances
extraordinary drought for eight
weeks in a row to qualify for the
designation.
More than half of them, 351
counties, were in the Wheat Belt,

hay from the Prairies and sent feed grain
prices to the moon last year.
No one knows how much longer the
drought will last but experts say North
American cattle prices going into the fall
are likely to remain strong no matter what
happens. If it rains, calves in backgrounding lots now will go to grass and hit the
market at the usual time next fall. No rain,
and they’ll show up earlier.
“But if a whole pile of calves go into
the feedlot right now in the U.S., it may
be good to buy grassers to fill that void in
August or later in the year,” Canfax market
analyst Brian Perillat said at a recent meeting in Ste. Rose du Lac, Man.

Cow-calf producers needn’t be concerned too much about it, however.
“Supplies are tight no matter what happens. There’s going to be way less calves
in 2013,” he added.
With the U.S. cow herd continuing its
14-year trend lower by a further three per
cent, and the country’s exports continuing to soar due to the devalued greenback,
the massive hole in North American beef
supplies will take several years to fill, he
predicted.
That’s because heifer replacements for
the 30-million-head herd south of the bor-

f you have hunger pangs,
don’t expect to get rid of
them with a soft drink,
according to a new study
by Yale School of Medicine
researchers.
In a study published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association,
the researchers say glucose,
but not fructose, suppresses
brain activity in regions that
promote the desire to eat.
High-fructose corn syrup
is the main sweetener used
in soft drinks. A Gallup survey last year reported that 48
per cent of Americans drink
an average of 2.6 glasses of
soda daily, the equivalent of
22 teaspoons of sugar.
Researchers using magnetic resonance imaging
found that ingestion of glucose reduced blood flow and
activity in brain regions that
regulate appetite, but fructose did not.
The U.S. Corn Refiners
Association criticized the
study, saying the results were
tested on only 20 people in
amounts “that people do not
consume in real life.”
“It is highly unusual for
humans to consume this
much sugar in one sitting,
particularly if they had just
finished a fast,” said Dr.
James Rippe, founder and
director of the Rippe Lifestyle Institute and professor
of biomedical sciences at the
University of Central Florida,
and also a consultant to the
Corn Refiners Association.

Bullying isn’t only in
the schoolyard

Strangles contagious,
but recovery likely

27
28

Bernie Peet
High Prairie hosts 15th
Beef Congress

26

Tillage radish exerts
240 psi of pressure

33

Using NIRS in a commercial
feed mill

29

New campaign
wants to create a
passion for pork
THINKING YOUNG } Facebook, YouTube and Twitter all play
key role in the “Passion for Pork” marketing campaign
by alexis kienlen
af staff/leduc

T

here’s nothing better than a nice
pork roast or chop — if you’re an
older male. But if you’re under age
25, neither is likely to show up on the dinner table.
That’s something a new Alberta Pork
marketing campaign hopes to change.
Alberta Pork delegates got an overview
of the “Passion for Pork” campaign from
Dennis McKnight of the Innovators at
their recent AGM.
That data on consumption comes from a
2004 Ipsos-Reid study, and the older male
demographic is not good news, he said.
“I’m not being prejudiced on this, but
this is not a bright future,” said McKnight,
who is overseeing the campaign.
The same study said consumers under
the age of 25 seldom eat pork.
“This is a very important demographic,”
he said. “If you want to have a future, you
have to have young people eating your
product.”
Understanding consumer preferences
and markets is key, he said. Research
finds more people want top quality in
smaller portions, he noted, and that
Asian Canadians are more likely than
average to eat pork once a week.
“We have, on the Lower Mainland
of British Columbia, one of the largest
Asian populations in Canada. Let’s get
after them,” he said.
Pork consumption is higher in regions
such as Quebec and the Maritimes, where

consumers are more aware of the nutritional benefits, said McKnight. “Local”
is also key.
“There are over a billion dollars of sales
at farmers’ markets in Canada because
people want to support local farmers,”
said McKnight.
But large numbers of consumers don’t
know how to cook pork, save for frying
chops or bacon. But there’s an easy way
to address that.
“Do you realize that last year there were
1.5 billion hits on the Internet by people
looking for recipes?” said McKnight.
That’s one of the things that Passion
for Pork is trying to leverage. The campaign, which kicked off in May, has a
website with information about pork,
24 cooking videos by top chefs from
Alberta and B.C., and more than 100
pork recipes. So far, 20,000 people have
visited the website.
Social media is also vital to reaching
young people, said McKnight.

Alberta Pork wants its share of the 1.5
billion annual “hits” by people looking for
recipes.

To increase sales, target those who aren’t
eating pork now, says Dennis McKnight.
“We’re part of the conversation,”
he said. “If you want to be part of the
conversation with younger people, you
have to be on social media.”
The campaign, largely funded by Alberta
Livestock and Meat Agency, has an active
social media campaign including a YouTube channel for the chefs’ videos. There
are also bloggers in Edmonton and Calgary who post personal blog entries with
pork recipes, and there’s a Facebook page
and Twitter feed.
But none of this will change consumer buying habits overnight.
“You have to make the long-term
commitment to this stuff and you have
to constantly be there,” McKnight said.
The campaign also involves ads in
food publications and participated in a
restaurant week where top restaurants
in Edmonton, Vancouver and Calgary
had to put pork on the menu and come
up with three new pork recipes.
“They did, they loved it, and I can tell
you that those restaurants still have
pork on the menu,” McKnight said.
Restaurants are now challenged to create great meals for under $20 a plate, and
are making more of their own products,
which can include charcuterie (the branch
of cooking devoted to prepared pork products such as bacon, ham, sausage, etc.).
“It is a good time for pork, if we do it
correctly,” he said. “It’s about giving
people ideas and recipes and being part
of their conversation.”
The next phase of Passion for Pork
will focus on telling people where they
can purchase Alberta pork.

Predictions for livestock in 2013
cautiously optimistic about profits, stability
FORECASTING  Good crop year could mean the difference for some Alberta livestock producers
Producers have tools to help their
members with those calculations.

BY VICTORIA PATERSON
AF STAFF/CALGARY

Positive outlook for
bison producers

A

lberta’s livestock producers are staying positive
that 2013 could be a profitable year.
Representatives from various
organizations throughout the
province expressed their hopes
that things will go their way this
year, even as some of them face
challenges and new player JBS
enters the market.

Cattle industry
has good potential

Brent Chaffee, chair of the Alberta
Cattle Feeders’ Association, said
the market is a bit unknown and
could depend on how JBS handles
buying their cattle. He said major
issues facing members of his organization are continued volatility
in the market, the planned resolution of the country-of-origin
labelling in the U.S. that will
help Canadian cattle prices and
potential labour shortages. He
predicted that if feed prices stay
steady profits are possible, though
he cautioned that while feedlots
with large farming operations
should do well, smaller ones that
rely strictly on cattle could suffer
losses depending on how the dollar and grain prices fluctuate. “I
think it’s going to be tight,” he said
of the market.
Feeder Associations of Alberta
chair Jim Bowhay said their
members are trying to stay relevant and attract more youth to
the industry. With cattle numbers
down, Bowhay said the “dots line
up” for a good market situation
this year. He thinks they’ll be

Brent Chaffee thinks the market
could be tight for cattle feeders.

Frank Novak predicts another
tough year for pork producers.

Lynn Jacobson thinks it might
be hard to turn a profit in the
livestock industry in 2013.

seeing expansion as profits pull
more people to the sector. As for
how his members will be doing,
he said the industry can be profitable if input costs are kept in
check, but said producers need
to listen to what consumers want,
to stay in the black.

such as the South Saskatchewan
Regional Plan and the new energy
regulator bill, as issues facing his
members. He’s expecting the
market to stay “relatively strong”
but said having only two main
packers is a bottleneck for sending product to markets outside of
North America. “I’m hopeful that
we’ve seen the end of our contraction,” he said, forecasting “2013’s
going to be a profitable year.”

“I don’t expect the profits will be
large,” he said, continuing that it
will take years to reach any kind
of financial strength again.

“”I’d say profitability in
the livestock industry,
it’s going to be very
hard.”
LYNN JACOBSON

“The major issue facing the producers in Alberta is profitability
or the lack thereof,” said Frank
Novak, chair of Alberta Pork.
The industry has faced a variety of challenges over the past
few years, he said, with the most
recent one rising feed costs. A
number of people have left the
industry, he said, and more
could leave. Novak said if 2013
is a good crop year that could be
good news for pork producers.

Lamb still in demand

Alberta Lamb Producers chair
Ron den Broeder said his organization’s members are still going
through an adjustment that saw
prices drop in 2012. However,
lamb is largely an import product
and while a drought and economic
woes in Europe caused the drop, he
said, there’s still demand for lamb.
“There is not enough lamb on the
market,” den Broeder said. He said
prices should climb, but he’s not
sure when or by how much.
That demand means expansion
could continue. “It depends what
the prices are going to do. Right
now we’re in expansion mode,” he
said. He’s positive about the future
of the industry, though he said producers have to carefully calculate
their costs. He said Alberta Lamb

A steady demand and well-established markets are helping the bison
industry stay stable, said Thomas
Ackermann, chair of Bison Producers of Alberta. “We see it going,
I wouldn’t say mainstream but it’s
well known,” he said. Issues facing
producers include trade barriers
and the need to find more ways to
include value-added products like
sausage and jerky. He’s anticipating
stable prices for finished animals.
While more people are expanding,
however, others are leaving so he’s
not sure if it will balance out.
High feed prices could impact
profitability but overall he said
there’s a positive outlook for the
industry.

Making a profit
could be difficult

Lynn Jacobson, chair of the Wild
Rose Agricultural Producers, said
in general he sees some contraction coming in the livestock
industry, especially for feeders.
“I think the smaller feeders are
going to have a hard time surviving,” he said. For pork, the longterm outlook might be better but
in the meantime he predicted a
hard time. “It all depends on
what the retail price of pork and
beef and everything can actually
go up to,” he said. JBS will probably have a controlling effect on
cattle prices, he said. What the
livestock market is going to do is
“anybody’s guess.” “I’d say profitability in the livestock industry,
it’s going to be very hard,” Jacobson said.

Cargill profit quadruples,
led by grain sector
CONSTRUCTION  The company is focusing on
capital investments rather than acquisitions
CHICAGO / REUTERS

U

.S. agribusiness giant
Cargill Inc. said Jan. 9
quarterly earnings quadrupled, led by profits from
trading operations amid the
effects of last summer’s U.S.
drought, the worst in more than
50 years.
Minneapolis-based Cargill,
one of the world’s largest privately held businesses and a
leader in world commodity markets, said net earnings soared
to $409 million for the quarter
ended Nov. 30 from $100 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose six per cent to
$35.2 billion.
Strong global trading and
risk management results and
improved oilseed processing margins in several regions
boosted earnings, the company
said in a statement.
It was Cargill’s second straight
quarter of strong earnings after
weak results in 2012 prompted
Standard & Poor’s to downgrade
the company’s outlook to negative.
Smaller rivals like Archer
Daniels Midland and Bunge

faced similar pressures but also
emerged from a period of poor
earnings during 2012 amid volatile commodity markets.
Cargill, a leading food
processor, grain and meat
exporter, and ethanol producer and a trader in dozens
of countries around the world,
said it was pulling back from
acquisitions to focus on capital
investments.
“We have a record $2.4 billion of large projects under
construction in 13 countries,”
Cargill CEO Greg Page said in
a statement. “As these facilities
come online, they strengthen
Cargill’s supply chain, risk management and innovation capabilities.”
Earnings rose in four of five
Cargill’s business segments,
with its grain processing and
origination division posting the
strongest results.
Food ingredients and applications was the only segment
down from 2012, reflecting
excess capacity in the North
American ethanol market. But
Cargill’s animal protein business posted a profit, versus a
loss last year.

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W

henever energy prices take a dive
in Alberta, cutbacks to government spending are sure to follow. Reports indicate that the provincial
government will be short over $3 billion
in tax revenue due to depressed bitumen prices. Deputy ministers have been
ordered to come up with budget reductions of 10 per cent for their respective
departments. It’s a familiar song-anddance routine, but reducing the deficit
is only going to work if all departments
are equally included in a big cutback.
The reality is that cutting back the
Agriculture Department isn’t going to
make much difference in the overall fiscal scheme. The ag budget is peanuts
compared to the monster budgets of the
big-dog spenders like health, education,
and welfare. But those big dogs tend to
be yappy, highly political and sacred,
so the pressure is usually on the other
departments to come up with even more
cutbacks. But veteran Ag Department
bureaucrats are like the farmers and
ranchers they serve — they are used to
booms and busts.
This old warhorse remembers a few
cycles of boom and bust in government
spending going back to the Lougheed
days. Back then the government flush with
cash from high energy prices (it’s hard to
believe but $35 a barrel was high back
then) went on a diversification spending spree that included the Agriculture
Department. Tax money was pumped into
every idea with the hope it would bring
more industry to the province.
Old-school ag bureaucrats saw that
as a blank cheque to increase extension
services, a traditional department service that was dear to their hearts. New
district agriculturist offices where opened
in every small town in Alberta, along with
more district home economists (something unique to Alberta). Millions more
were spent on livestock diversification,
market development and promotion.
A new Ag Department head office was
also built in Edmonton to house all the
new administrators needed to manage

the rapidly expanding empire. I believe
there were at least five assistant deputy
ministers at the time.
Then when energy prices collapsed and
the merciless Klein cutback era arrived,
all that Ag Department expansion came
crashing down. Those glory days lasted
about 10 years.
Since that time the Ag Department has
had various reincarnations, but it’s a ghost
of its former self. That’s probably a good
thing, since the ag economy has changed
with consolidation and specialization.
One of the advantages the Ag Department
has over other ministries is that because it
is so small, structural changes can be made
without a lot of bureaucratic inertia and
political consequences.

Reductions of a few million in
the department’s budget is all
that is realistically possible,
which is pretty insignificant in
the big deficit picture.

On the other hand, that causes instability and sees policies change on a whim.
Department officials probably shudder whenever a new minister or deputy
arrives expecting that they will probably
want to launch some new restructuring
scheme just so they can make their mark
on the department.
One of the realities that affects the
extent of any government department
cutback has to do with the role of each
ministry within the context of its contribution to the economy. That’s where agriculture pales in comparison to such bigdog departments as education, health and
welfare. It even loses out to the Environment and Energy departments because
those folks deal with more sexy issues like
monitoring and emissions. Even though
agriculture and food processing are the

second-largest sector of the economy, the
department’s size relative to that sector
is small indeed.
The only thing that upsets that situation
is when some climate, market or disease
calamity requires a sudden infusion of
taxpayer cash. It seems whenever that
happens it takes at least a billion dollars
to resolve the crisis. To keep those unexpected, unbudgeted expenditures at bay
I expect there is probably a group of ag
bureaucrats whose main job is just to pray
that no such calamities will occur.
But when they do occur, the ag minister
of the day has to go cap in hand to the cabinet to beg for help. That hasn’t been easy
for many years due to a revolving door of
ag ministers — I believe there have been
seven in the past nine years, but I have
lost track. With all due respect to those
ministers, such a temporary nature to the
job doesn’t give them much clout around
the cabinet table. In reality it probably
puts them at a disadvantage whenever a
new cutback campaign is launched. Without a lot of experience, political clout and
backup in cabinet I suspect all a neophyte
ag minister can say to cutback demands
is “Yes Ma’am.”
Which brings us to the present situation. The best that can be hoped for is
a minor reduction in the department’s
budget — not that it matters. Reductions of a few million in the department’s budget is all that is realistically
possible, which is pretty insignificant in
the big deficit picture. However, department bean counters will be trying to find
anything that can be reduced or eliminated. I expect such agencies as ALMA
and many ag-related research bodies
will see reductions in their budgets. That
would be short sighted, as those folks can
actually generate more returns to the
economy and tax base than most other
government bodies.
I am biased, but perhaps the Ag Department needs to be exempted from any
big cutbacks being their activities tend
to contribute to a net benefit to the taxpayer. Compare that to recent media
reports about such spendthrift agencies
as Alberta Health Services, where millions
were spent on travel, perks and over-thetop salaries. I rest my case.

New advocate will need to define job
A
recent appointment by
the ruling PC government
would indicate that it’s
full steam ahead for their overall land use policy agenda. Lethbridge lawyer Lee Cutforth was
appointed the first-ever Alberta
property rights advocate. At
this point it’s hard to determine
what his exact role will be as it
is the first job of its kind in the
country. From the title it could
be presumed that the duties will
be similar to those of the longstanding and well-respected
Farmer’s Advocate position.
However, that position has an
activist undertone to it that helps

farmers deal with not just corporate bureaucracy and red tape,
but also red tape and inertia by
government departments and
agencies. The latter is probably
not what the government has in
mind in dealing with property
rights issues, hence creating a
new position and not giving the
new responsibilities to the existing Farmer’s Advocate program.
Besides creating the new
position makes it look like the
government is truly concerned
with property rights, an issue
that has caused the ruling PC
party so much political grief in
southern Alberta.

Justice Minister Jonathan
Denis, who made the appointment, has stated that the new
advocate will furnish information to landowners (which
the government perceives as
resolving all the political misunderstandings on the issue)
and provide advice to the government. The advocate is also
supposed to investigate any
complaints. I expect how that
specific duty is carried out will
decide whether this position is
of actual consequence, or as
some suspect nothing more
than political smoke and mirrors.

One difference in this appointment seems to be that it does not
appear to be an outright political job reward similar to the
one given by the government
to defeated former ag minister
Evan Berger.
One hopes that considering the
estimated million-dollar cost of
the new advocate’s office that it
will produce some value for the
taxpayers’ money. If it doesn’t
it will surely become just more
political cannon fodder for the
opposition Wildrose Party, that
has found that the property rights
issue is a political gift that just
keeps on giving.

5

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

The world turns its attention
to animal welfare Part one of two
World standards } The World Organization for Animal Health starts with a focus on beef production
mal care comes from the Food
and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) of the United Nations in
its interactive “Gateway to Farm
Animal Welfare” website. The
Gateway is equal parts information source, a forum for discussion and a platform for the
international animal welfare
community to engage in collaborative projects.

Meristem Information
Resources

W

e hear a lot about how
livestock welfare has
become a front-burner
issue around the world. But what
specifically is happening at that
big-picture global level that Canadian livestock producers and their
industries should keep an eye on?
University of British Columbia
animal welfare expert Dr. David
Fraser is often invited to international livestock welfare discussions and participates in several
of the major international organizations and initiatives. He regularly speaks to livestock industry
groups to provide what he calls
“the 30,000-foot view” — a unique
perspective on the global animal
welfare agenda.
Fraser provides colour commentary on several key international developments that have
stuck in his mind based on activities and observations of the past
several months.
• The “Gateway” opens. An ambitious new web-based communications effort that promises
to reshape how the world learns
and collaborates on farm ani-

“The proposed beef
standard had enough
specifics to provide real
value and it passed
overwhelmingly 177 to 1.”
David Fraser

The FAO is highly influential,
especially in the less-industrialized countries, and the activity
of the Gateway is likely to be a
major driver in shaping how the
world thinks about and manages
farm animal welfare issues.
“This is the first major public
communications effort the

FAO has really done on farm
animal welfare,” says Fraser.
“Globally it’s quite significant
because this is an information
channel to most of the countries in the world. The Gateway
should be a very good indication of what the big issues are
globally and how different
countries are approaching
them. It could become a solid
resource and tool for Canadian organizations and interest groups involved in livestock
welfare.”
• OIE adopts beef production
standards. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)
has adopted its first-ever international standards on animal
welfare in livestock production
systems, starting with a focus
on beef production.
The OIE is the major intergovernmental global organization
responsible for improving animal health worldwide, with a
total of 178 member countries including Canada. The
beef-production standards
adopted this past spring by
OIE delegates cover a number
of components. These include:
criteria and indicators to measure the welfare of beef cattle,
nutritious quality of feed,
supplementary lighting for

cattle that do not have access
to natural light, bedding and
many other aspects of cattlebreeding conditions.
This move is a major shift
from the OIE’s traditional
focus on animal health into
the broader livestock welfare
arena. It opens the door to
more OIE standards to come
and continued building of
consensus-based international
approaches.
Fraser says there’s nothing
mandatory about the standards, but they set a consensus on baseline expectations.
“I think it’s very significant that
the OIE is now playing such a
role. To me, this signifies a
global acceptance of the issue
that wasn’t there 10 years ago.”
An interesting footnote is that
the year before, a draft attempt
at standards for broiler chicken
production was put forward
but did not reach consensus
and was withdrawn, says Fraser. “The proposed beef standard had enough specifics to
provide real value and it passed
overwhelmingly 177 to 1.”
• Statement of 10 general principles. Another big development
out of OIE in 2012 was the organization’s landmark adoption
of 10 “general principles for the

welfare of animals in livestock
production systems.” This was
another breakthrough example
of global consensus on livestock welfare. The 10 principles, agreed upon unanimously
by the 178 OIE members, were
designed to guide the development of animal welfare standards for the organization.
The beef production standards
were developed under these
principles, which are meant to
provide a consistent basis for
all future livestock welfare standards. The principles outline
basic elements that should be
incorporated into standards for
all types of livestock production,
regardless of species or jurisdiction. As such, they represent
a historic achievement and
promise to be highly influential
in shaping the design of livestock
welfare approaches throughout
the world.
“The sheer number of countries
agreeing to these fundamentals,
to me represents a monumental
shift,” says Fraser. “This signifies a
global acceptance of the issue that
simply wasn’t there 10 years ago.”
From the NewStream farm animal
care newsletter by Meristem
Information Resources. To subscribe
email newstream@meristem.com.

The meat industry needs to
show it has nothing to hide
Options } Consumers can choose to get their protein from other sources
By Darryl E. Ray and
Harwood D. Schaffer

O

ver a century ago, a
journalist obtained
employment in the
meat-packing industry in Chicago intending to draw attention to the deplorable working
conditions. When Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle was
finally published, the public
reacted not to the conditions
endured by the workers, but to
diseased cattle and the lack of
sanitation in an industry that
provided the meat they ate.
Today we see the same sort
of activism surrounding the
meat industry. The differences
between the two eras are mostly
a matter of technology. Sinclair
used a pen and paper. Today, the
tools are hidden video cameras
and videos posted to the Internet where some of them go viral.

No less than in Upton Sinclair’s day, the battle today is an
ideological one. He was a socialist hoping to end wage slavery;
concern about tainted meat was
the public’s interest. Today’s
videographers’ issues range
from the humane treatment of
animals to making the eating of
meat unpalatable to a large swath
of the U.S. public. For those concerned about animal welfare, the
target audience is typically consumers who will pressure large
restaurant and grocery chains to
set standards for the meat/egg/
milk products they sell.
One hundred years ago,
the result of the work of Sinclair and other muckrakers was
the passage of the Federal Meat
Inspection Act of 1906 and the
Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Today, state legislators debate
ways to make it illegal for workers
to surreptitiously make videos in
meat-production facilities.

“(I)f there is something
we are unwilling to
show, we probably
shouldn’t be doing it.”
Temple Grandin

The problem with legislation
that aims to punish today’s
muckrakers is that it makes the
meat industry look like it has
something to hide. And, that
only makes matters worse for
everyone, all of the way back to
the cow-calf operator.
If consumers think the
industry has something to
hide, they will switch products. With today’s emphasis

on a diet that includes a variety
of whole grains, the only thing
consumers have to do is add
a complement of pulses and
they can consume all of the
essential amino acids needed
for full protein utilization in
humans — no meat or animal
products needed.
As recently reported on the
Drovers Cattle Network, Colorado State University and the
Colorado Beef Council sponsored a “conference titled
“Beef + Transparency = Trust.”
In an article, “Trust through
transparency — Part 3,” Drovers managing editor John
Maday wrote, “Temple Grandin, known worldwide for her
work in animal behaviour and
handling, told the group that
the livestock industry needs to
show the public what they do.
And if there is something we
are unwilling to show, we probably shouldn’t be doing it.”

As economists, we agree.
The availability of completeas-possible information to
all market participants is
a key expectation for economic transactions in freemarket economies. Information restrictions of all kinds
are indefensible and totally
foreign to the perfectly competitive models ascribed to by
economists.
In this case one could argue
that detailed information from
producers, along with the reasons for practices, would provide a more balanced and realworld window into livestock
production than an agendadriven, highly edited video
that goes viral on the Internet.
Daryll E. Ray is the director,
and Harwood D. Schaffer a
research assistant professor, at
the Agricultural Policy Analysis
Center at the University of
Tennessee. www.agpolicy.org

6

OFF THE FRONT

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

CALF PRICES  from page 1
der are up only one per cent, and
even a hefty expansion of Canada’s
four million head won’t be enough
to fill the gap.
Many ranchers south of the border are desperately trying to hang
on despite high feed costs. If they
are forced to fold due to a second year of drought, the resulting
shortage of cattle will push prices
skyward in the coming years.
“If they don’t get the rain, there
could be another flush of cattle
hit the market. Then next year,
the beef shortage will really show
up,” Perillat said.
But producers will continue to
face high feed costs. Ethanol still
soaks up 40 per cent of the corn
crop and with last year’s harvest
down by a quarter, even a perfect
growing season in the Midwest
won’t mean a return to $3-perbushel corn.
Meanwhile, U.S. beef net exports
have shot up to 750 million pounds
a year, a sharp reversal from 2006
when the country imported two
billion pounds. That shift is equal
to taking Canada’s total beef production at 2.8 billion pounds off
the market, said Perillat.

WHEAT BELT  from page 1
The liquidation trend has
ended, but Canada’s herd is
down 25 per cent from the peak
six years ago. When the Jan. 1 Statistics Canada numbers come out
in February, it is likely to show
that heifer retention numbers
only rose 50,000 head for a total
of 600,000.
“Historically, we’re still very
low,” said Perillat.
Five years ago, everyone thought
Brazil would dominate world
exports, but higher prices for corn
and soy have swallowed up acres
that would have been used for beef
production.
Richer now than they were,
Brazilians are eating more beef
and the country’s exports have
dropped 20 per cent in the past
five years.
Oddly enough, India is the wild
card in the international beef
trade. The cow may still be sacred,
but outcrosses with water buffalo
and dairy cows have opened up a
niche that doesn’t offend Hindu
sensibilities.
“India in 2013 could potentially
be the biggest beef exporter in the
world,” said Perillat.

Brian Perillat, a Canfax analyst, gives an overview of beef markets for
2013 at a meeting in Ste. Rose, Man. PHOTO: DANIEL WINTERS

U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR

running through the Plains from
Texas to North Dakota. All but
one of Oklahoma’s 77 counties
were termed disaster areas, along
with 88 of Kansas’s 108 counties,
30 of Colorado’s 64 counties and
157 of Texas’s 254 counties.
Crop condition ratings for
winter wheat were the worst on
record in early December, the
most recent figures available.
Some experts said up to a quarter of the crop will be abandoned
because of poor development.
Winter wheat, the dominant
U.S. wheatB:10.25”
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the fall, goes
dormant during the
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JANUARY 8, 2013

winter and is harvested the following spring.
USDA also declared as natural disaster areas 14 counties in
Alabama, 47 counties in Arkansas, four counties in Arizona, 92
counties in Georgia, two counties
in Hawaii, 31 counties in Missouri, 19 counties in New Mexico, nine counties in Nevada, 11
counties in South Carolina and 17
counties in Utah.
In 2012, USDA designated 2,245
counties in 39 states as disaster
areas due to drought.
Some 42 per cent of the contiguous 48 states were under

Some experts said up
to a quarter of the crop
will be abandoned
because of poor
development.

severe to extraordinary drought,
according to U.S. officials. The
worst of the drought was in the
Great Plains.

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he future of the Brooks
beef-packing plant at the
centre of an E. coli outbreak that triggered the largest
beef recall in Canadian history has been secured. JBS USA
announced in a press release
that its subsidiary JBS Food
Canada Inc. was exercising its
option to purchase the XL Foods
Lakeside beef-packing plant. JBS
has been managing the facility
since it reopened on Oct. 29,
2012. In addition to the Brooks
plant, the deal includes another
packing plant in Calgary and
a 70,000-head feedlot with an
adjoining 6,000 acres of farmland in Brooks.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to

Japanese trading firm aiming to sell Canadian pork
into Asian markets has
bought a third of a major Manitoba producer and packer.
Itochu Corp. on Jan. 8 said it has
paid about five billion yen (C$56.6
million) for a 33.4 per cent share
of HyLife Group, based at La Broquerie, Man.
Itochu said in a release that the
deal is based on the understanding that HyLife’s expansion strategy “most prioritizes markets of
Japan and Asia” where the two
companies could mutually help
each other.
HyLife’s sales of “safe, secure
pork” are expected to increase
through Itochu’s marketing network in the Asian market, “with a
focus on China, where consumption continues to grow, as well as
in the Japanese market.”
HyLife, which operates out of
livestock-rich southeastern Manitoba, produces over 1.4 million
pigs a year and has owned and
operated the former Springhill
Farms pork-processing plant at
Neepawa, about 75 km northeast
of Brandon, since 2008.
HyLife, known as Hytek until
2011, also owns feed mills,
genetics labs, a barn construction business and a farm supply distribution business for its
barns. The company expanded
its hog production business into
the U.S. and, in 2008, China,
where it’s now a partner in Tianzow Food Co.
Itochu said it also expects the
HyLife deal to help expand its
business with China’s Longda
Foodstuff Group, a “significant
partner” of Itochu’s, by way of
“technical exchanges in the field
of pig production.”

officially enter the Canadian cattle. Bruett said the slaughter
beef-processing market,” said mix under JBS will depend on
Cameron Bruett, head of corpo- the market.
rate communications for JBS USA
The release said JBS is awaiting
in an interview.
the U.S. government’s regulatory
I n O c t o b e r t h e r e w a s a n review for whether it can proceed
option to buy the plant and with the purchase of XL Food’s
other Canadian and American assets south of the border. Howfacilities from Edmonton-based ever, while they’ve been embraced
Nilsson Brothers, the owners by Canadian cattle producers,
of XL Foods for $100 million in there’s been some opposition
cash and JBS shares. The exact south of the border. “We have seen
details of the sale have not yet some cattle groups raise some
been released. Decisions about concerns, yes, but we’re going
the name and any changes to through the process with the U.S.
the facility haven’t been deter- government on that and they’ll
mined yet, Bruett said.
conduct their review,” Bruett said.
“We’ll address those issues
Representatives from Canadian
when we officially acquire the cattle groups welcomed the deal.
facility,” adding it was hoped “That’s certainly good news for the
the acquisition would be done industry,” said Doug Sawyer, chair
b y m i d - J a n u a r y . T h e p l a n t of Alberta Beef Producers. “We’re
SEC-WHEAB13_AF.qxd
1/10/13
Pageto1see JBS is making
under
XL Foods processed
both 4:32
very PM
pleased
cull cows and finished slaughter the full commitment.” Sawyer

said JBS has a lot of experience in
expanding export markets, which
he’s hoping will help Canadian
beef. “I’m not seeing any concerns,” he said. It would have been
nice to see a Canadian company
step up, he said, but there was
nobody willing to do so. “I think
that JBS, judging from what I have
learned from them, they look like a
good fit,” he said. “I think it bodes
well for the foreseeable future for
that plant.”
Brent Chaffee, chair of the
Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association, agreed it was good news,
though he’d like to see a third bidder enter the beef-packing market.
“What the Canadian market needs
is either another entity as a reliable
local bidder and/or a fluid border.
Those two things would help the
industry as much as another name
on the packing plant in Brooks,”

he said.
Chaffee thinks JBS will continue to operate the plant at an
“economical level” but said they
might not try and feed as many
cattle in the area as Nilsson’s had.
“I think the overall concentration
of captive cattle for that plant
will be lower,” he said, adding
that should mean a more robust
cash market.
Western Stock Growers Association chair Phil Rowland agreed
with Chaffee that he’d like to see
a third bidder in the marketplace,
but felt the JBS purchase is good
news. “It’s more important that
we have a stable packing market
than our concerns about a foreign
ownership,” he said. “They certainly are experts in the packing
industry.” JBS USA is owned by
JBS S.A., a leading Brazilian global
meat production company.

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8

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Good year for wheat and barley
predicted, stability for other crops
FORECASTING } Most producer groups think 2013 will be profitable
By Victoria Paterson
af staff/calgary

R

epresentatives from Alberta grain, oilseed and special crop producer groups
predicted a hopeful 2013 when
asked to forecast how their
industries would fare this year.
The general manager of the
recently formed Alberta Wheat
Commission said this year looks
good for wheat, though there
may be a shift in the varieties
grown following the end of the
Canadian Wheat Board monopoly. Rick Istead said this year
the commission will be building awareness in its stakeholders and striving to deliver value
to its members so they’ll accept
a checkoff to promote marketing- and variety-development
initatives. He predicted continued strong prices for wheat and
good demand, though said there
may be a shift to more Canadian
Prairie Spring wheats. “Growers
will grow those varieties or those
classes that will make them the
most money,” Istead said. “I
think we’re going to see some
expansion of the smaller classes
at the reduction of the hard red
spring.” He said he thinks wheat
will definitely be profitable.
However, he cautioned farmers
to pay close attention to the markets and their contracts.
Disease management was
the No. 1 issue facing producers this year, said Jody Klassen,
chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission. He named
clubroot and blackleg as main

concerns. “I think obviously
the markets would be the second… if it can stay where it is,
canola’s going to continue to
be a profitable crop,” Klassen
said. He guessed that demand
would remain strong and supply concerns an issue, resulting
in another strong year for canola
prices.
Klassen said he thinks canola
acreage will remain similar to
2012 levels. “I don’t really see it
growing or shrinking,” he said.
Canola will remain profitable if
there are good yields and prices,
he said. “It’s probably better
than most years,” he said for
2013.

Barley might expand

With good health claims and
opportunities for exports in
the feed and malt market, Matt
Sawyer, chair of the Alberta Barley Commission, is predicting
strong prices.
“It’s a great crop to grow agronomically,” he said. Some of the
group’s main issues this year will
be making research a priority
and focusing on making sure the
livestock producers they supply
are happy. “My initial thoughts
are there’s going to be more
barley acres put in,” he said. “I
would say the prices should be
staying strong for a few years to
come,” he said.
“Generally speaking I think you
could say the market is bullish,”
said Gerry Good, president of
Alberta Pulse Producers. He said
disease management, especially
for peas, is a key challenge for
the pulse industry. He said more

plant breeding and research is
needed, including research into
developing markets for the fraction or processed components of
peas.
Good predicted some small
expansion for the pulse industry in general, but said there’s
“tremendous” interest in faba
beans right now.
Helmut Leili, executive director of the Potato Growers of
Alberta, said the main issues
this year are to hold their own
in terms of acreage and volume
of production. Overproduction
of potatoes in other parts of Canada and the U.S. is a concern for
Alberta growers, he said.
“We’re hoping for stability,”
he said of the market and acres
planted in Alberta. The group
would also like to see more
research dollars from the government.
Lynn Jacobson, chair of the
Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, said for grain producers the
main issues in 2013 are changes
to the grain commissions and to
insurance.
“I guess what we’re looking at
is that prices don’t seem to be
related to supply and demand
anymore,” Jacobson said. “We’re
cautiously optimistic in the grain
and oilseed industry at this point
in time,” adding it’s not possible
to predict production and prices
at the time of year.
Jacobson expects expansion
in grain crops and stability in
oilseed producers, though he
noted there’s a likely shift in
the varieties of wheat that will
be produced this year.

new finding by USDA
researchers could mean
that instead of eating more
whole wheat bread because it’s
good for them, people will eat
more simply because it’s good.
The key to giving whole wheat
bread a more appetizing aroma
and taste may lie in controlling
the amounts of a single chemical
compound that appears in the
bread, which nutritionists regard
as more healtahful than its refined
white counterpart. That’s the finding of a new study in ACS’s Journal
of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, which opens the door to making whole wheat bakery products
more appealing to millions of
people.
Whole wheat flour includes all
three layers of the grain — bran,
germ and endosperm — while
refined flour is mostly endosperm.
Whole wheat flour contains more

fibre and compounds called phytochemicals, both of which can
help reduce the risk of cancer,
heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Despite wheat bread’s benefits, many consumers choose
white bread because they prefer its
taste and aroma. Devin G. Peterson and colleagues wanted to find
out how one specific compound
prevalent in whole wheat flour
impacts its taste and aroma.
They focused on ferulic acid
(FA), found mainly in bran. Scientists already knew that FA suppresses one of the critical components of baked bread’s aroma.
When Peterson’s team added FA
to white flour dough, the bread
tasted and smelled like wheat
bread. They linked those changes
to reduced amounts of a number
of compounds that help shape
bread’s aroma. Understanding
these chemical reactions could
help bakers make healthier bread
more appetizing, their study suggests.

9

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

NEWS
Feds fund research
on genetic markers
The federal government
has provided more than
$575,000 from the Agricultural Innovation Program
for Delta Genomics Centre
in Edmonton to accelerate
the adoption of new genetic
profiling tools.
The tools identify SNPs
(single nucleotide polymorphisms), which are genetic
markers that can be tracked
between parents and their
offspring. They would identify traits such as meat quality, animal health and feed
efficiency.
“This project is an essential stepping stone to get the
benefits of genomics into
the hands of producers on
the ground,” Colin Coros,
vice-president of operations of Delta Genomics
Centre said in a government
release. “It will allow our
project partners to adopt
a new sire identification
tool, which is fundamental to using more in depth
DNA profiles for genetic
improvement of Canadian
cattle.”

CFIA to open
“Centres for
Expertise”
staff / The Canadian
Food Inspection Agency
is opening 16 “Centres for
Expertise,” including two in
Calgary, in a bid to get all of
its inspectors on the same
regulatory page.
The centres “will provide
interpretation and guidance”
to front-line staff, said Paul
Mayers, the agency’s associate vice-president for policies and programs.
The agency has been operating under a “dispersed
model” in which inspectors
in different parts of the country go to different places for
regulatory interpretation, he
said.
“The challenge that we
have in the dispersed model
is that it’s possible therefore
for an inspector in one part
of the country to get subtly
different interpretation provided,” Mayers said. “We
want to avoid that where we
can. We want to have consistent interpretation.”
The locations for the
various centres were partly
determined by the local concentration of related industries and academic experts.
“We want to be able to tap
into other experts outside of
government,” Mayers said.
Calgary is to be home to
the centres for red meat
slaughter and foreign animal disease and emergency
management expertise. The
former was a natural fit while
the latter reflects the fact that
recent foreign disease events
— including BSE and avian
influenza — have occurred
in Western Canada.
The centres were
announced as part of the
2012 federal budget and
are part of “modernization
effort” aimed at ensuring
more efficient and consistent
delivery of inspection services, he said.
”We’ve seen where inconsistency can contribute to
a bit of confusion,” Mayers
said.

Monsanto sees range of new
products, raises profit outlook
Ambitious } The world’s largest seed company is positioned to launch

a new technology every year through the end of this decade

States this spring at about 76 million acres or more.
“The bottom line is our order
book is strong,” Grant told analysts
in a conference call.
Total sales of corn seeds and
genetic traits rose 27 per cent to
$1.1 billion in the first quarter compared with a year earlier.
Soybean sales, conversely, fell to
$231 million, down 4.5 per cent.
Sales for cotton, vegetable seeds
and all other crop seeds and genetic
traits were lower for the quarter.
Monsanto’s sales of herbicide
and other crop, lawn and garden
chemicals were up nearly 31 per
cent to $1.2 billion, largely due to
strong pricing and other favourable market dynamics, the company said.

By Carey Gillam
Reuters

M

onsanto Co., the world’s
largest seed company,
said Jan. 8 that expansion
efforts in Latin America are paying off, adding to the company’s
strength in the U.S. market and
helping it capture surprisingly
strong profits.
Monsanto has been pushing
for deeper penetration of its corn
seed products in Latin America
and said it was seeing good progress on upgrading offerings in Brazil
and Argentina. In particular, sales
of corn engineered both to tolerate weed-killing treatments and
to protect the plant from pests are
expanding rapidly in both countries, the company said.
“The Latin American opportunity
is tracking very well,” said Monsanto chairman Hugh Grant.
The growth in Latin America,
along with early U.S. spring seed
sales and strong herbicide sales,
helped Monsanto raise its earnings outlook for fiscal 2013 and
delivered surprisingly strong firstquarter results.
Shares rose nearly three per
cent after the developer of genetically engineered corn, soybeans
and other crops said it was aiming for $4.30 to $4.40 per share on
an ongoing basis in fiscal 2013, up
from its previous guidance of $4.18
to $4.32 per share. If achieved, it
would mark the third straight year
of ongoing earnings growth.
The guidance fell shy of analysts’
estimates, but still was applauded.
On average, analysts were looking for $4.43 a share for fiscal 2013
guidance, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S.
The guidance excludes what
could be 20 cents to 25 cents of
earnings contribution from soybean sales in Brazil, as the company
is involved in a dispute there over

Trait Stewardship
Responsibilities

Notice to Farmers
Monsanto Company is a member of
Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS).
Monsanto products are commercialized
in accordance with ETS Product
Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in
compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for
Commercialization of BiotechnologyDerived Plant Products in Commodity
Crops. This product has been approved
for import into key export markets with
functioning regulatory systems. Any
crop or material produced from this
product can only be exported to, or used,
processed or sold in countries where
all necessary regulatory approvals
have been granted. It is a violation of
national and international law to move
material containing biotech traits
across boundaries into nations where
import is not permitted. Growers should
talk to their grain handler or product
purchaser to confirm their buying position
for this product. Excellence Through
Stewardship® is a registered trademark
of Excellence Through Stewardship.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE
LABEL DIRECTIONS.
Roundup Ready® crops contain genes
that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the
active ingredient in Roundup® brand
agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand
agricultural herbicides will kill crops that
are not tolerant to glyphosate. Genuity
and Design®, Genuity Icons, Genuity®,
Roundup Ready®, and Roundup® are
trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC.
Used under license.

Pipeline of new products

Hugh Grant, the chairman, president and chief executive of
Monsanto. PHOTo: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
collection of royalties on its patented “Roundup Ready” herbicideresistant soybeans.
Monsanto has been meeting
with grower groups in Brazil to try
to forge an agreement even as its
legal dispute with the government
over royalty collection continues.
The company wants to resolve
the issue before it launches a new
“Intacta” soybean.
Intacta beans are genetically altered not only to tolerate
Roundup herbicide, but to also
protect plants from harmful worms
and to offer increased yields.
Brazil, the world’s No. 2 soybean
producer, is one of Monsanto’s
fastest-growing and most important markets after the United States
and demand for soybeans in Brazil
has increased sharply.

Fast-growing markets

Monsanto said corn seed and
genetic trait sales in Latin America

and in the United States were key
to a total jump in sales of 21 per
cent, to $2.9 billion for the quarter,
a surge that even surprised Monsanto, Grant said.
The company expects U.S. acreage planted with both its leading
corn and soybean products to
expand this year, officials said, as
the pace of U.S. seed orders exceeds
last year’s.
Monsanto said it expects U.S.
farmers to plant 36 million to 38
million acres with its key corn seed
products, up from 27 million acres
in 2012. Company officials reiterated expectations for a total of
about 96 million acres planted by
U.S. farmers with corn.
Monsanto said it expects U.S.
farmers to plant about 39 million
to 41 million acres with its Genuity
Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans,
up from 32 million acres in 2012.
The company has said it sees total
soybean planting in the United

Monsanto also said that it has a
record number of projects in its
research and development pipeline
and is positioned to launch a major
new technology every year through
the end of this decade.
Commercial sales of the company’s new “DroughtGard” corn
begin this year.
The company is moving forward
on new dicamba-tolerant soybeans,
as well as beans with resistance to
root rot disease, and it is enhancing
insect control for corn and pushing
forward on a wheat with improved
yield capability, officials said.
The dicamba-tolerant soybeans
are seen as a critical move for Monsanto, as its core Roundup Ready
crops lose their appeal due to growing weed resistance to Roundup
herbicide.
The company is also deploying
a “steady wave” of new vegetable
products ranging from diseaseresistant cucumbers to broccoli
that is easier to harvest and has
improved appearance on store
shelves. The company hopes to
launch the broccoli this year in the
United Kingdom.

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NEWS » Markets

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Food prices to stay high in 2013

Peregrine CEO to be sentenced

Food prices will stay high in 2013 and low stocks pose the risk of sharp price increases if
crops fail, says the United Nations’ food agency. A surge in food prices over the summer
of 2012 fuelled by drought in the U.S. and dry weather in other major exporters raised
fears of a new food crisis such as the one seen in 2008. But the Food and Agriculture
Organization’s Food Price Index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of
cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, fell for the third month in a row in December to
209, its lowest level since June, led by declines in cereals and oils prices.

Peregrine Financial Group’s former chief executive, who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $100 million from customers of his futures brokerage, will be
sentenced on Jan. 31. Russell Wasendorf Sr., 64, who founded the now-defunct firm,
faces a potential maximum sentence of 50 years in prison after pleading guilty in
September to mail fraud, lying to regulators and embezzling customer money. Last
July Wasendorf attempted to kill himself and confessed in a suicide note to bilking
customers over nearly 20 years. Peregrine Financial, known as PFGBest, quickly
collapsed and thousands of former customers are still missing money.

}Fraud

}crop concern

10

USDA’s latest production
bullish for grains; bearish soybeans
Tight stocks } Canola is still well supported by its own supply-and-demand fundamentals

By Phil Franz-Warkentin

T

he ICE Futures Canada canola
market saw some choppy activity during the week ended Jan.
11, as positioning in the U.S. ahead of a
much-anticipated production report kept
some uncertainty in the Canadian market as well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final production numbers for
the 2012 growing season were released
Jan. 11, along with updated supply and
usage projections. When the dust settled,
canola, soybeans, corn and wheat were all
higher for the most part, although soyoil
posted losses on the week.
While the actual numbers contained
only minor adjustments from previous
estimates, the immediate response to
the report was bullish for the grains but a
little bearish for soybeans. The U.S. wheat
contracts saw the largest price move in
response to the report, as seeded acres
were not as big as market expectations.
U.S. wheat stocks at the end of the current marketing year, May 31, were also

forecast to be tighter than most traders
had anticipated.
After dropping steadily for all of
December, the wheat market was looking
for a reason to correct higher. That catalyst finally came with the January USDA
report. Whether or not the bounce can be
sustained remains to be seen, but the fact
remains that wheat posted its first weekly
gains since late November.
U.S. farmers planted 41.8 million acres
of winter wheat this past fall for harvest in
2013, according to USDA. That represents
a one per cent increase from the previous year, but average market guesses had
been for a three per cent rise. On top of
that, what’s in the ground continues to be
hampered by drought conditions across
much of the U.S. Plains, which will likely
hamper yields.
U.S. wheat exports have been admittedly lacklustre to date, as the country
faces stiff competition in the international market. However, ending stocks
are still forecast to be on the tight side at
only 701 million bushels. That compares
with a previous estimate of 754 million.

More wheat is said to be finding its way
into feed rations.

Corn carry-out revised

The corn numbers included an increase
in 2012 yields, due to improved yields,
but a decrease in ending stocks. The
carry-out for the current marketing year
was revised lower due to an expected
increase in domestic consumption.
Corn ending stocks are now forecast at
only 602 million bushels, which compares with 989 million at the close of
the 2011-12 marketing year.
However, export demand also
remains poor for corn, especially as
end-users are now anticipating the
cheaper South American supplies soon
to be available.
For soybeans, the USDA report could
be seen as a little bearish, as U.S. soybean production in 2012 came in above
trade guesses at 3.015 billion bushels.
Export demand is firm for the commodity, but as in corn, South America’s
large crop will soon be displacing the
U.S. in the international market.

For Canada, the canola market
bounced around in sympathy with its
U.S. counterparts for the most part during the week, but remains well supported
by its own fundamentals.
Tightening stocks remain a concern
across Western Canada, with end-users
still looking to secure supplies before
they run out. The latest Canadian Grain
Commission data, as of Jan. 6, shows
visible stocks held in commercial hands
have declined to 879,200 tonnes, from a
million the previous week and 1.5 million at the same time in 2012. Crushers
and exporters continue to work at a solid
pace and, depending on the location, are
offering good basis opportunities to keep
operating.
The best basis can be found in southern Manitoba, but with crush margins at
very weak levels, it’s uncertain how long
those opportunities might last.
Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for Commodity
News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company
specializing in grain and commodity market
reporting.

MARKET BRIEFS
• Argentina’s 2012-13 corn harvest is expected at 28 million to
30 million tonnes, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Oscar Solis
said Jan. 14, increasing expectations after President Cristina
Fernandez forecast a crop of
24.5 million tonnes last year.
“There is a lot of corn, and in
exceptional condition,” Solis
told Reuters. “The range will be
roughly between 28 million and
30 million tonnes.”
The projection puts the
ministry in line with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
(USDA), which earlier upped
its 2012-13 Argentine corn crop
estimate to 28 million tonnes
from 27.5 million tonnes.
The season started with heavy
August-November storms that
flooded wide swathes of the

Pampas Grains Belt, raising fear
that many areas would not get
planted.
The rains have since given
way to extended stretches of
sunny weather, allowing farmers to get most areas planted
and setting the stage for healthy
yields.
• Argentine soy planting
advanced quickly in the week
ending July 10 to cover more
than 90 per cent of the targeted
area, easing fears of a crop
shortfall that could keep world
food prices high.
The Buenos Aires Grains
Exchange said recent sunny
weather firmed topsoils enough
to finally allow farmers to drive
heavy seeding machines into
fields that had until recently

been turned to mush by a series
of violent rainstorms.
“Farmers in western Buenos
Aires province were able to take
advantage of this rain-free period
and plant more late-seeded fields,
including low-lying areas that had
until recently been waterlogged,”
the exchange’s report said.
Farmers, worried about
diseases that could strike soy
plants in areas that remain
waterlogged, are keeping a
sharp eye out for fungal outbreaks such as Asian soy rust
and frog-eye leaf spot that
thrive in soggy conditions.
“Some areas that still cannot be
planted with soy will be seeded
with corn,” the exchange said.
“Growers are looking for alternatives to make sure fields are
productive.” — Reuters

• U.K. wheat imports surpassed
one million tonnes during the
first five months of the 2012-13
season, exceeding the total for
the entire previous marketing
year, customs data showed Jan.
15.
Imports had soared this season after a poor wheat crop in
Britain with yields slumping to
a 23-year low and quality hurt
by high diseases levels.
Britain is expected to be a net
importer of wheat in 2012-13
for the first time in more than a
decade.
• Italy’s stock market is considering adding more commodity
futures contracts as it gears up
to launch Europe’s first futures
market for durum wheat later
this month.

“We are studying other
derivatives on other agricultural
products,” Borsa Italiana Commodities head Ennio Arlandi
said on the sidelines of a conference. He would not specify
which.
Borsa Italiana, which runs
the Milan exchange and is
controlled by the London
Stock Exchange, will launch
its new AGREX futures for
durum wheat on Jan. 21 in a
move to help Europe’s pasta
makers offset price volatility.
Italy is one of the world’s
leading producers of durum
wheat, which is used mainly
to produce pasta in the continent and couscous in North
Africa and the Middle East. —
Reuters

he consequences of climate
change are now hitting the
United States on several
fronts, including health, infrastructure, water supply, agriculture and
especially more frequent severe
weather, a congressionally mandated study has concluded.
A draft of the U.S. National Climate Assessment, released Jan.
11, said observable change to the
climate in the past half-century “is
due primarily to human activities,
predominantly the burning of fossil
fuel,” and that no areas of the United
States were immune to change.
“Corn producers in Iowa, oyster
growers in Washington state, and
maple syrup producers in Vermont
have observed changes in their
local climate that are outside of
their experience,” the report said.
Months after Superstorm Sandy
hurtled into the U.S. East Coast,
causing billions of dollars in
damage, the report concluded
that severe weather was the new
normal.
“Certain types of weather events
have become more frequent and/
or intense, including heat waves,
heavy downpours, and, in some
regions, floods and droughts,” the
report said, days after scientists at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared
2012 the hottest year ever in the
United States.
Some environmentalists looked
for the report to energize climate
efforts by the White House or Congress, although many Republican
lawmakers are wary of declaring
a definitive link between human
activity and evidence of a changing climate.
The U.S. Congress has been
mostly silent on climate change
since efforts to pass “cap-and-

trade” legislation collapsed in the
Senate in mid-2010.
A three-month period for public
comment will now ensue, as well as
a review by the National Academies
of Sciences, before the final version
is produced.

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“A warning to all of us”

The report noted that of an increase
in average U.S. temperatures of
about 1.5° F (.83° C) since 1895, when
reliable national record-keeping
began, more than 80 per cent had
occurred in the past three decades.
With heat-trapping gases already
in the atmosphere, temperatures
could rise by a further 2° to 4° F
(1.1° to 2.2° C) in most parts of the
country over the next few decades,
the report said.
Certain positive consequences of
rising temperatures, such as a longer growing season, were said to be
offset by more disruptive impacts,
including:
• Threats to human health from
increased extreme weather
events, wildfires and air pollution, as well as diseases spread
by insects and through food
and water;
• Less-reliable water supply, and
the potential for water rights
to become a hot-button legal
issue;
• More vulnerable infrastructure
due to sea-level rise, bigger
storm surges, heavy downpours
and extreme heat;
• Warmer and more acidic
oceans.
“This draft report sends a warning
to all of us: We must act in a comprehensive fashion to reduce carbon pollution or expose our people
and communities to continuing
devastation from extreme weather
events and their aftermath,” Senator Barbara Boxer, a California
Democrat who heads the Senate
environment committee, said in a
statement.

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14

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

HAY’S ON

A herd of horses chows down on their morning mounds of hay, at the Anchor D outfitting company, west of Turner Valley, Alta.

PHOTO: WENDY DUDLEY

Kenya farm
clashes turn
deadly
ETHNIC VIOLENCE  The

two groups have fought
for years over access to
grazing, farmland and
water
BY JOSEPH AKWIRI

MOMBASA/KENYA/REUTERS

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aiders armed with guns,
machetes and spears killed
30 people, including several children, and torched their
houses in Kenya’s coastal region
Dec. 21, police said.
Nine of the raiders were also
killed in what appeared to have
been a revenge attack by settled
Pokomo farmers against the seminomadic Orma pastoralists after a
series of clashes in August in which
more than 100 people were killed.
The two groups have fought for
years over access to grazing, farmland and water, but human rights
groups have blamed the latest
violence on politicians seeking
to drive away parts of the local
population they believe will vote
for their rivals in parliamentary
elections in March.
If those charges are true, it further
raises fears of a repeat of the ethnic
violence that rocked Kenya after the
disputed 2007 presidential election,
in which more than 1,200 people
were killed countrywide.
“About 150 Pokomo raiders
attacked Kipao village which is
inhabited by the Ormas early on
Friday. The Ormas appeared to
have been aware and were prepared,” Robert Kitur, Coast Region
deputy police chief, told reporters.
One survivor said the attackers
struck at dawn.
“There were too many gunshots. They used also spears and
machetes. I ran out of my house
and left behind my wife and two
children, and told them not to
leave... but the enemies reached
my house, killed my family and
burnt my house as I watched from
where I was hiding,” said Osman
Amran, 63, of the Orma tribe.

15

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

After a bumper
harvest in 2012,
India poised to be a
new wheat-export
powerhouse
Surplus } Government reserves now
have reached 31 million tonnes, second
only to China and three times the official
target levels
by gavin maguire
chicago / reuters

W

hile most other major
wheat growers around
the world suffered
from production setbacks in
2012 due to drought, India’s
farmers had a banner year
which has resulted in a glut
of wheat supplies at state-run
warehouses and export facilities.
India’s state reserves of
wheat have reached 31 million tonnes the highest level
in the world outside of China
and three times larger than official target levels. This sets the
stage for the country to emerge
as a major player on the wheat
export stage in 2013 and potentially make up for any shortfalls
from other exporting regions.
India is the third-largest consumer of wheat in the world,
and this boost in supplies puts
the country’s exporters in an
unusual position, as traditionally India is only a bit-part
player in global wheat trade.
So far, the Indian government has raised its wheat
export allowance gradually as
it assesses overall crop supply prospects for 2013, with
licences for 2.5 million tonnes
of wheat recently issued to follow on from the two million
tonnes released from state
reserves in late 2012.
But with global prices
remaining attractive due to
the shortage of supplies out of
other regions, additional flows
of Indian wheat are very likely,
and should hit a record by
the end of 2013. Traditionally
India ranks around 10th among
wheat-exporting nations, but
will likely move up three or four
places this year.

put will likely remain destined
for domestic users.
Still, from time to time India
will emerge as a major force
on the export stage in certain
markets to play a critical role
in plugging supply shortages,
as looks likely to be the case in
wheat this year.

Workers load wheat onto a cargo ship at Mundra port in the western Indian state of Gujarat. PHOTo: REUTERS/Amit Dave

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A flash in the pan?

However, the country’s status
as a major player on the wheat
export stage may not last long.
Massive domestic demand
levels coupled with erratic production of all major food and
feed staples mean that India’s
exporters may well have substantially lower levels of crop
excesses to trade with a year
from now.
That said, steady improvements in the country’s wheat
yields have materialized over
the past five years or so, which
suggests that sustainable
increases in food and crop
production could be seen from
India going forward that may
secure its place as a top exporting powerhouse.
But given the relentless levels
of demand for all crops stemming from its giant human and
animal herd populations, the
lion’s share of India’s crop out-

klahoma rancher Kent
Donica has given up.
The drought that has ravaged pastures on his ranch and
throughout the region has won.
Since last September, Donica
has sold nearly all of his 800 cattle because there is no pasture
to feed them and he now works
as a ranch hand nearby to make
ends meet until it rains again.
Last autumn he had hoped his
winter wheat crop would feed
his cattle and keep his ranching business going. The wheat
also would reduce the need to
buy high-priced feed like corn,
which would wipe out earnings
from the cattle he fattens and
sells.
But the worst dry spell in half
a century stopped the wheat
crop from sprouting properly,
depriving Donica’s herd of the
green shoots that would have
sustained it through winter.

Donica is not alone. Across the
southern Plains, the worst-ever
starts to the winter wheat crop
have put in jeopardy ranches
that depend on wheat pasture
for cheap feed, raising the prospect of higher beef prices this
summer.
U.S. farmers, squeezed by high
prices for corn and other fodder on one hand, and drought
that has parched pastureland
on the other, are cutting back
their herds in a bid to survive.
The U.S. cattle herd has shrunk
to 91 million animals, the smallest in 60 years.
More pain seems to be on the
horizon for ranchers after the
USDA on Jan. 11 reduced its
estimates for corn stocks, sending Chicago Board of Trade corn
futures sharply higher.
“The drought has absolutely
put me in a survival mode and I
finally decided there was no way
to fight this,” said Donica, who
now tends a nearby rancher’s
cattle to pay expenses.
“If we don’t get some rain

pretty quick, it will be the end
of the world in Oklahoma as far
as the cattle business is concerned,” said Donica, 47, whose
ranch is near Ardmore, Okla.
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas,
which have all been hurt by
drought, are important pieces in
U.S. cattle production accounting about 25 per cent of the
nation’s herd, including dairy.
The share is even larger for beef
cattle, with the three states currently fattening 46 per cent of
the supply.
Already the shrinking herd is
driving up cattle and beef prices,
which could further accelerate
the decline of beef consumption
in the United States, which has
fallen more than 16 per cent per
capita in the last decade.
Farm lender Rabobank forecasts U.S. cattle prices will soar to
a record high $140 to $145 per cwt
this spring as numbers decline.
The shrinking herd will reduce
beef production, with USDA forcasting a 4.3 per cent drop this year
from 2012.

The smaller U.S. cattle herd
and the resulting drop in beef
production has lifted retail beef
prices to an all-time of $5.15 per
lb in November, surpassing the
previous peak of $5.09 in January 2012.

Poor wheat crop

Winter wheat is a key link in
the economic chain of the U.S.
cattle industry. Animals that
graze on the tender shoots in
the fall and early winter before
snow covers the ground tend to
put on more muscle than they
would eating grain like corn.
Only a third of the U.S. winter
wheat crop at the end of November was rated “good to excellent” by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and the crop has
deteriorated since then.
“We essentially have no wheat
pasture. There are very few
cattle on wheat in Oklahoma at
this time and many of them will
probably not make it through
the winter,” said Darrell Peel,
Oklahoma State University

Winter wheat that would usually
be grazed over the winter did not
germinate for many farmers last
fall PHOTo: Texas A&M
extension livestock marketing
specialist.
Peel expected ranchers to
continue selling off their herds
to avoid buying high-priced
feed.
This year, stocker cattle in the
Ohio Valley are going to go to
auction barns or feedyards a
lot sooner, said Sam Roberts of
United Producers Inc, a farmerowned and operated livestock
marketing co-operative based
in Columbus, Ohio.
“Many of those cattle will wind
up being moved to feedyards in
the Midwest at a lighter weight
than they would normally,” said
Roberts.

Pork could top
beef as No. 2 U.S.
meat in 2014
Recovery } Economist says corn

production can still rebound
Nashville/Reuters

U

.S. corn production,
slashed dramatically by
drought in 2012, could
rebound to a record-large crop
this year if yields improve moderately, said an agricultural economist from Texas A&M University.
David Anderson also said pork
production could top beef in 2014,
pushing beef into third place in
U.S. meat production. Poultry
and pork production are on the
rise while beef is held back by high
feed costs and drought-damaged
grassland.
“What we’re trying to do is make
it to the next crop,” Anderson said,
describing how livestock producers face several more months, at a
minimum, of tight feed supplies.
High commodity prices will
encourage farmers to plant
roughly as much corn as last year,
he said, and with higher yields,
“you get a record crop,” with lower
prices that will ease the financial
squeeze on livestock producers.
During a presentation at the
annual American Farm Bureau
Federation meeting Jan. 14,
Anderson said corn plantings
were likely to match the 97 million
acres of 2012 and yields could run
around 150 bushels an acre. With
an average amount of abandonment, that would bring a crop of
13.4 billion bushels, topping the
record of 13.092 billion bushels
in 2009.

Large plantings allow a record
crop even with below-average
yields, said Anderson — “It just
doesn’t have to be as awful as last
year.” The 2012 crop averaged
123.4 bushels an acre.
U.S. corn and soybean production as fallen for three years in a
row with harsh weather pulling
down yields. Drought persists in
the Plains and western Corn Belt
although rainfall levels in the eastern Corn Belt are improving.
Chad Hart, an Iowa State University agricultural economist,
said corn, soybean and wheat
yields “will likely remain below
trend line in 2013” but production totals could “bump up.” He
did not suggest harvest size.
Demand for U.S. meat will be
stable to growing this year, with
beef output falling and production of poultry and pork rising,
said Anderson. Pork exports are
booming.
“I think it certainly could happen,” Anderson told reporters,
for pork output to exceed beef in
2014. “They’re very close at that
point.”
Beef production may begin to
rise in 2015, he said, responding
to high market prices.
The U.S. Agriculture Department projects a decline in beef
production while pork increases
this year to within six per cent of
beef’s total — 24.8 billion lbs. for
beef vs 23.3 billion for pork. Poultry was forecast at 43.3 billion lbs.
in a USDA report in early January.

Another
Stellar
tM

PerforMance.

19459-01UP DAS_Stellar_13.167X9.indd 1

17

Albertafarmexpress.ca • january 21, 2013

New report decries food waste in
developed and emerging countries
Lost } The British engineering society estimates that 1.2 billion to two billion tonnes of food are wasted each year
london / reuters

U

A woman plates up food at a restaurant in Leicester, central England. Up to half of all the food produced
worldwide ends up going to waste due to poor harvesting, storage and transport methods as well as irresponsible
retailer and consumer behaviour, a new report says. PHOTo: REUTERS/Darren Staples

p to half of all the food
produced worldwide
ends up going to waste
due to poor harvesting, storage,
and transport methods as well as
irresponsible retailer and consumer behaviour, according to
a new report.
The world produces about four
billion tonnes of food annually,
but 1.2 billion to two billion
tonnes are not eaten, says the
study by the London-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
“This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue,” the
report states.
In developed countries, like
Britain, efficient farming methods, transport and storage mean
that most of the wastage occurs
through retail and customer
behaviour.
Retailers produce 1.6 million tonnes of food waste a year
because about 30 per cent of fruit
and vegetables don’t meet exacting size and appearance criteria.
As well, 30 to 50 per cent of what
makes it to the grocery shelves in
developed countries is thrown
away by customers, often due
to poor understanding of “best
before” and “use by” dates.
A “use by” date is when there
is a health risk associated with
using food after that date. A “best
before” date is more about quality — when it expires it does not

necessarily mean food is harmful but it may lose some flavour
and texture.
Promotional offers and bulk
discounts also encourage shoppers to buy, and waste, more.

Rising population

In Britain, about $16.3 billion
worth of food is thrown away from
homes every year, but the situation
is very different in less developed
countries, where wastage mostly
happens due to inefficient harvesting and poor handling and storage.
Southeast Asian countries, for
example, lose anywhere from 37
to 80 per cent of their entire rice
harvest, totalling about 180 million
tonnes per year, the report said.
A rising global population —
expected to peak at around 9.5
billion people by 2075 — will push
up prices and make the practice of
discarding edible fruit and vegetables on cosmetic grounds less economically viable, the report forecasts. But it argues governments
should not wait for food pricing
to trigger action on this wasteful
practice, but produce policies that
change consumer behaviour and
dissuade retailers from operating
in this way.
The report says developing
countries should follow the
example of China and Brazil,
which have not only invested
in infrastructure to move and
store crops, but have also spent
money to ensure they are efficient and well maintained.

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he United States’ countryof-origin meat-labelling
rules have directly cost the
Canadian hog and pork industry
more than $2 billion, according to
a report that could help determine
retaliation against U.S. exports if
Washington does not change its
rules.
The United States must bring
its labelling rules, known by the
acronym COOL, into compliance
with an earlier World Trade Organization ruling by May 23, 2013,
according to a WTO decision last
month. But citing no apparent
movement by the U.S. Congress
since the original WTO ruling
in mid-2012, the Canadian Pork
Council released its estimate of
damages Jan. 14, and called for
Ottawa to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports to Canada if
there is no change by the deadline.
“COOL continues to cost hog
and cattle producers tens of millions of dollars every month and
must be dealt with sooner rather
than later,” said Jean-Guy Vincent,
a Quebec hog farmer and chairman of the Pork Council.
The labelling program has led to
a sharp reduction in U.S. imports
of Canadian pigs and cattle,

because it raised costs for U.S.
packers by forcing them to segregate those animals from U.S. livestock. Some U.S. groups, however,
have said COOL offers consumers
valuable information about the
origin of their food.
The Pork Council’s report, written by economist Ron Gietz, calculated that the labelling rules
cost Canadian farmers $2 billion
in lost hog exports by the end of
2012, plus an additional $442
million in reduced pork shipments and suppressed prices
for feeder pigs.
The report does not address
damages to the Canadian cattle
industry, or Mexico’s livestock
sector.
The WTO ruled on June 29 that
the U.S. country-of-origin labelling program unfairly discriminated against Canada and Mexico because it gave less favourable treatment to beef and pork
imported from those countries
than to U.S. meat.
Meat labels became mandatory in March 2009 after years
of debate.The law requires grocers to put labels on cuts of beef,
pork, lamb, chicken and ground
meat or post signs that list the
origin of the meat.
U.S. officials have said they
intend to bring COOL into compliance by the WTO’s deadline.

here’s no doubt that access
to a supply of quality water
is key to the success of any
agricultural operation. However,
some years, quality water may
not be so easy to come by.
Now, more than ever, farmers
and ranchers are taking control
of the resource by developing
long-term water-management
plans, geared towards identifying their usage needs through
a water-source inventory. The
results will help producers preserve existing water sources and
weather the challenges of drier
years.
“When it comes to water-management planning, it’s all about
quantity and quality,” says Joe
Harrington, agriculture water
specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.
“Many agricultural producers do find themselves short
of water or they find that they
don’t have the quality of water
that their operation needs. The
idea is planning ahead and being
proactive to ensure your operation has enough quality water for
immediate needs and for future
needs.”
The first step towards developing a water-management plan is
for producers to calculate how
much water they need for any
purpose, including household

use, livestock use and spray
water use.
While this may sound straightforward, Harrington says that
pinpointing water requirements
for an operation can be challenging. That’s why a long-term
water-management plan template has been developed.
Although every farmer has
different water-usage requirements, the template is generic
and will work for any type of
agricultural operation. The
Environmental Farm Plan (EFP)
workbook contains a section on
water sources and Harrington
points out that long-term watermanagement planning is a key
component of any environmental plan.
“It’s taking a look at their
operation, assessing their water
needs, assessing their current water supply,” Harrington
says. “They look at whether or
not they have enough quantity
and enough quality and then
they can make an action plan
to address any shortfalls. That’s
really the gist of any planning,
taking a look at what you have,
what you need and then making
an action plan on how you’re
going to address any problems.”

Determining normal

He says that operating without
a water plan can be costly for
any operation. For example, if
drought depletes a dugout, cat-

Planning ahead can ensure enough water supply for immediate and future needs.
tle producers may be forced to
haul water, move their herds or
reduce herd sizes.
“If they’ve looked at it and calculated that the volumes they
have are barely meeting their
needs in a normal year, and
they know from experience that
they don’t always have normal
years, then that’s an indication
that they should be looking at
expanding their water supply,”
says Harrington.
The province’s water act spells
out who can use the water, based
on environmental consider-

ations, and Harrington says producers can be surprised when
they discover how much of the
resource they’re actually consuming. However, he adds that
the process can spark improvements in water-usage efficiencies, as well as a heightened
awareness of environmental
considerations.
As a fundamental self-assessment tool, the EFP provides an
ideal starting point to developing a long-term water management plan. As the EFP process
continues to be refined, pro-

ducers can expect to see watermanagement features to become
even more of a focus, according
to Harrington.
“There’s no question that
water management will be a
more significant component
of on-farm environmental
management heading into the
future,” he says.
Harrington believes the agricultural industry as a whole
is becoming more aware of
the value of managing water
resources. Cattle are watered
away from riparian areas at offsite watering sources such as
troughs. It’s no longer common
practice to pump water from a
well into a dugout in dry years.
Producers are choosing to pipe
water, rather than develop new
water sources. Old water wells
are being properly decommissioned so they don’t contaminate groundwater aquifers.
Wells are being built to last longer and well-drilling techniques
are more advanced, with less
environmental risk.
“There’s more understanding now that these aquifers are
a limited water resource,” Harrington says. “They aren’t an
unlimited supply of water and
so farmers are becoming much
more efficient in their use.”
More information on EFPs
in Alberta is available on the
Alberta Environmental Farm
Plan website.

19

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

Wanted: More Canadian goats,
more Canadian producers
ETHNIC DEMAND  Many of Canada’s new immigrants come with a taste for goat meat
BY ALEXIS KIENLEN
AF STAFF/EDGERTON

I

t’s a good time to be a goat
farmer, and it would be even
better if there were more goat
farmers to supply the growing
demand, says the vice-president of
the Alberta Goat Breeders Association (AGBA).
“The Canadian palate is changing. We have a lot more ethnic
diversity and people coming into
Canada,” said Laurie Fries, who
runs SLF Ranch near Edgerton
along with her husband Shay.
“It’s an up-and-coming industry
that is growing from year to year.
Many of these new immigrants are
used to consuming goat products
and want to keep their traditional
eating habits when they settle in
Canada. All of these new people
are really driving the interest in
goats,” said Fries.
Central Canada has the highest
numbers of goats, but demand
continues to grow strongly in the
western provinces, said Fries, who
has a herd of 100 Boer goats.
In 2012, the Alberta Goat Breeders Association had about 200
members. Membership in the
organization has grown dramatically over the past few years.
Fries said there is a huge need
in the industry for new producers.
“It’s just hard to get producers
to take notice and come into the
industry,” she said.
Still, the influx of people into the
industry has created a shortage of
available breeding stock to cope
with the demand. In order to offer
quality breeding stock to new producers, the AGBA decided to hold
a goat sale at the same time as its
annual general meeting last fall.
Fries said many young people
who want to come back to the farm
are seeing the goat industry as a
viable option. The business is also
attractive to farm families, especially young mothers who want
to involve their children in their
operation. Goats are also winning
favour with 4-H clubs and older
people who want to downsize or
retire from the cattle industry.

said the industry was affected by
restrictions put upon the industry
after BSE, and the number of goats
in the country dropped for a few
years after 2003.
Sixty per cent of the goat meat
consumed in Canada is imported
from New Zealand and Australia.
Many producers are marketing
off farm, but feedlots are buying
through local auction markets or
by contacting producers directly,
said Fries. The Sungold plant in
Innisfail and some local provincial
abattoirs are slaughtering goats.
Many of the ethnic communities
need their goats to be halal, and
only some of the abattoirs are able
to fulfil this requirement. “Basically, if you’ve got a goat for sale,
it’s sold,” she said. “It’s not an issue
of marketing; it’s an issue of getting
enough product.”

Goats are browsers and can eat noxious weeds, so some municipalities and community pastures are turning to
goats as an option for natural weed control.

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Some producers are choosing
to add goats to their operations
because of their interest in multispecies grazing. Goats are browsers and can eat noxious weeds, so
some municipalities and community pastures are turning to goats as
an option for natural weed control.
Goats need less space, which
makes them an attractive option
for the small acreage owner.
Seven goats can live on the space
needed by one cow, said Fries.
Goats can live on a less profitable
land base, as they prefer to eat
weeds and trees.
“You can get a piece of land that
you couldn’t raise a cow on and
raise a goat on it,” she said. “That’s
one of the benefits of multi-species
grazing, because you can get more
value off your land by running
multiple species that eat different
things.”
In order to manage goats, producers need good fencing and
good predator control. Fries
advises new goat producers to
talk to more experienced producers about best management
practices, and to attend AGBA
workshops and conferences. Fries
19769-04 E_Carmela_8.125x10.indd 1

1/15/13 10:57 AM

20

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Cowbytes software saves money on winter feeding
Rations } Producers can modify the nutrient content of feed components based on their own feed test results
ment. “Producers can also adjust
for climatic conditions such as
temperature, wind speed, or mud
in pens, as well as for hide thickness and summer or winter hair
coat depth that is dry or wet.”
The program comes with a feed
table based on average values
of Alberta feeds. After selecting
feeds from the feed table, producers can modify the nutrient
content of these feeds based on
their own feed test results. Then
they enter the amounts fed of
the various feeds to balance the
ration for energy, protein, major
minerals such as calcium and
phosphorus, trace minerals such
as copper, zinc, manganese and
selenium, and vitamins A and E.
The program also allows producers to enter water analysis which
may affect the feeding program
especially in salt and mineral
intake.
“Once the ration is balanced
producers can create a feed mix,
such as a grain mix, or grain/
silage/supplement mix, or mineral/salt/vitamin mix, and create
batch-scale sheets in increments
that allow for adjusting the levels
of the mix for increased size of the
cattle,” says Ramsey. “The number of head for the feeding period
can also be entered to create a
ration summary report of all the
feeds used in the various rations
for different groups of cattle, to
determine the inventory of feeds
that will be required. This helps
producers to purchase more feed
in advance or to sell some animals
to match feed inventory with cattle requirements.”

Agri-News

C

owbytes is a cattle ration
balancing program developed by Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. It
allows producers to optimize the
use of homegrown feeds by only
purchasing supplements that are
necessary or by taking advantage
of lower-cost alternative feeds or
byproducts. In this way, producers can often reduce feed costs
while meeting production targets
or even boosting productivity and
profitability.
“The program allows producers to select the type and breeds
of cattle they want to feed, and
productivity levels based on
body weight, average daily gain
in growing cattle, or body condition score, stage of gestation or
milk production level in cows,”
says Patrick Ramsey, business
development specialist — beef
competitiveness with Alberta
Agriculture and Rural Develop-

Yardage calculator

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One of the new features of Cowbytes Version 5 is a yardage calculator. This allows producers to
enter their facility and equipment
costs, expected life of these facilities and equipment, expected salvage values, annual interest rates,
taxes, insurance and other costs
such as vet/med, utilities, repairs,
fuel, corral cleaning, labour, additional insurance and interest
along with the number of cattle
and number of days on feed to
determine yardage costs per head
per day. This is especially important if producers are overwintering someone else’s cattle on a custom rate per-head per-day basis
as often producers underestimate
their yardage costs. The Cowbytes
Manual has also been expanded
to include everything producers
would ever want to know about
cattle nutrition while also having
a very practical beef ration rules
of thumb section.
“By playing with the amounts
fed of various combinations of
feeds and byproducts at different
prices, producers can find ways
to reduce feed costs while achieving production targets,” explains
Ramsey. “One time I helped a producer shave off $0.10 per cow per
day by cutting back on feeding levels during mid-gestation. For 900
cows for 30 days this amounted to
a saving of $2,700. Most producers will easily find $1,000 in feed
savings for overwintering their
cattle, by scouting around for
some cheaper alternative feeds
such as crop residues and byproducts, and by using this program
to prevent over- or underfeeding
while getting the performance
they desire. Boosting your cattle’s
performance could lead to even
greater returns.”
Cowbytes can be ordered online
on the Alberta Agriculture website
or by calling the publications
office toll-free at 1-800-292-5697.

21

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

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Grazing season should be 365 days a year
AGRIPROFIT$  Cow-calf producers who want their operation analyzed can contact AARD
Stocking rate

AGRI-NEWS

E

ach grazing management
year comes with opportunities to make a difference and
learn new or improve techniques.
“Many of the skilled grazing
managers I talk to are real systems
thinkers,” says Grant Lastiwka,
forage, grazing and beef specialist with Alberta Agriculture and
Rural Development. “Just by listening to how they put the pieces
together, I get creative ideas on
how to address some of the grazing projects I am working on.”
Excellent grazing management is a complicated system,
and every year is different. While
that is true, Jim Gerrish, a wise
grazing mentor, says it’s simpler
than that. He says, “It takes grass
to grow grass. Keep working on
building the best ‘green solar
panel’ on each 43,560 square feet
(one acre) of land that you graze.”
Spring is when the plant-growing season is largely set up. That

Grazing specialist Grant Lastiwka says to think of each acre as a “green solar panel.”
is when managing grazing has the
greatest effect on determining the
length of the grazing season. Grazing management actions taken
during this time set up the potential for the year’s forage yield.
Springtime in grazing should be
viewed as when a grazing-system
strategy starts its new cycle. In
northern climates, spring grazing
is especially crucial because the
season is short.

“Early-spring grazing season is
about a ‘40-day game’ once over
across the whole farm, which
sets up many new plant tillers
for regrowth thereafter,” says
Lastiwka. “If management is
successful, you’ll have a 10-watt
and not a three-watt solar panel
on each pasture acre. That 40
days will vary, but in this short
window of time, we want to challenge plants/pastures to perform

at a maximum rate of photosynthetic capture for their one to
three growing cycles per year.
We want these cycles to capture
plant food at a maximum as long
as plant vigour, nutrients, and
weather conditions will allow.
The captured sunlight energy
is converted into plant/forage
yield that will be used to budget
for the other 325 days of the grazing year.”

Plants that have over three leaves
are healthy enough to remove
some leaf area with spring grazing. Using systems thinking well
in advance, balance stocking
rate to a conservative pasture
carrying capacity for the grazing
season length desired.
If stocking rate is balanced to
carrying capacity for the desired
length of grazing period, you
need to start grazing early on
very vigorous plants (stockpiled
stands), because by the time you
finish that first grazing cycle you
are ending that 40-day period
with this year’s plants now
reaching maturity. For example,
grazing new green plants before
the three-leaf stage, but mixed
with last year’s stockpiled forage growth, means that grazing
starts before much new growth
occurs, but it starts on last year’s
banked, stockpiled forage.

“If management is
successful, you’ll have a
10-watt and not a threewatt solar panel on
each pasture acre.”
GRANT LASTIWKA
AARD

By mid-April or slightly later,
there are new green plants growing into the cow bite zone. Some
of these new green plants are
less than the three-leaf stage of
growth, but by the time the graziers complete this very earlyspring grazing, they are into forage stands of too mature green
growth that is heading out.
“However, on average, you are
starting at just the right time,
grazing with a healthy transition
for plants, animals and food for
the soil rhizosphere,” says Lastiwka. “Challenging the plants
in this way keeps them growing
by removing the growing points
that create a seed head. You are
setting up vegetative tillers to be
regrowth, leaving behind a green
solar panel with a varied set of
pasture growth stages, and this
green solar panel is set up to be at
its maximum photosynthetic and
yield potential. This solar panel
has a new set of tillers growing as
dense vegetative stems and leaves
to be high in quality for the later
season grazing. You are also feeding the soil organisms and making
soil with key species like arbuscular mycorrhizae transporting carbon products into the soil in symbiotic exchange for nutrients and
water going back to the plants.”
Take advantage of the winter
for getting more information
from grazing events put on by
Forage and Applied Research
Associations, and government
or industry extension efforts.
Annual AgriProfit$ business
analysis done by senior livestock
economist Dale Kaliel of Alberta
Agriculture and Rural Development, shows that a 365-day grazing mentality of management is
a leading-edge method being
applied by most managers to
cost effectively create a profitable
cow-calf business.
If you would like to get your
cow-calf operation analyzed to
participate in AgriProfit$, visit
the website or contact Dale Kaliel
at 780-427-5390.

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advertising for any reason stated or unstated.
Advertisers requesting publication of either display
or classified advertisements agree that should the
advertisement be omitted from the issue ordered
for whatever reason, the Alberta Farmer Express
shall not be held liable. It is also agreed that in
the event of an error appearing in the published
advertisement, the Alberta Farmer Express accepts
no liability beyond the amount paid for that
portion of the advertisement in which the error
appears or affects. Claims for adjustment are limited
to errors appearing in the first insertion only.

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Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Minister of International Trade Ed Fast have announced
that Nicaragua has approved imports of beef and pork from Canada. Effective immediately,
Canada can export beef to Nicaragua, with full access restored after the closure of this market
in 2003 due to BSE. Also, for the first time ever, market-access conditions have now been
established for Canadian pork. In 2011, Nicaragua imports of beef and pork were $1.6 million
and more than $17 million respectively.

China has approved four additional Canadian beef facilities that will now be able to export
beef to China. They are Les Viandes Laroche Inc. (Asbestos, Que.), Ryding Regency Meat
Packers Ltd. (Toronto, Ont.), St. Helen’s Meat Packers Limited (Toronto), and Canadian
Premium Meats Inc. (Lacombe, Alta.). The additions are part of a staged market approach in
a June, 2011 agreement with China to allow imports of Canadian deboned beef from animals
under 30 months of age (UTM), making Canada the first BSE-affected country to resume
trade of beef with China.

High Prairie hosts 15th annual
Peace Country Beef Congress
Rotation } Annual event is moved around each year to a different town to maximize exposure

RC – Cattleman’s – The Cattleman’s choice for the Reserve Grand Champion went to Colby Klassen from Willow Creek Simmentals.
Standing next to Colby and his prize bull are his father, Mike, and judge Rob Young (far right). Colby’s brother, Colton, accepted the
title of Grand Champion on behalf of the family farm. PHOTos by: Kim Prinz

By Kim Prinz

af contributor / high prairie

O

rganizers of the Peace Country Beef
Congress (PCBC) demonstrated
years of experience, excellent judging, and the ability to host another successful show during the 2013 Beef Congress,
which was held recently in High Prairie.
From the buff bulls to the heartiest heifers
and the strongest steers, there was a sense
of excitement amongst the competitors as
they carefully coiffed their cattle, trying to
impress the judges with their animals’ conformation and overall appearance.
Impress they did, especially Willow
Creek Simmentals, which took away the
most titles over the two days, including
the Grand and Grand Reserve Champion
for their pen of three bulls, as well as the
Grand and Grand Reserve Champion for
the Cattleman’s Choice Bull.
PCBC president Danny Waluk said he
was impressed with the turnout at this
year’s show.
“Sometimes these shows really depend
on the weather,” he said, “but we were fortunate this year. Overall, we had a really
good show. There was a strong showing
from the competitors. We saw some really
remarkable animals. We also had an excellent turnout of exhibitors and we thank all
of them for their continued support.”

4-H participation

One of the highlights of the show is the
chance for 4-H clubs to bring in their
projects and have them professionally
judged. Members of the clubs get a chance
to participate in a professional show for
the first time, as they take their animals
through the ring in front of a large crowd
of spectators. They are also given a seminar
on exactly what the judges are looking
for, and then asked to judge several cattle
themselves and compare notes with the
real judge.
“We learned a lot,” said 16-year-old
Jess Verstappen, a member of the Coyote
Acre 4-H Club out of High Prairie. “They
teach a lot of this in 4-H, but to be able to
come to a show like this and then use their
techniques to place cattle and see how our
marks line up with the judges is an excellent experience.”
In addition to the judging, Mel Hyland
offered up tips on how to communicate
with horses, while Alberta Beef Producers
director Roland Cailliau spoke about the
2013 market outlook.
“Everything we are told about our prospects in the cattle industry is that we are
looking at excellent prospects for the next
four to eight years,” Cailliau said. “Cow
numbers are down in Canada, the U.S.,
South America, and other parts of the
world. Demand for protein is up and beef
is part of that. That is the simple equation.

Roland Cailliau spoke to a large number of
producers about the cattle market outlook
for 2013.

High demand, relatively low supply.” He
concluded by saying the cow-calf business
in the Peace Country appears to be at the
beginning of several years of profitability
and producers are in an excellent spot to
“reap the rewards.”

Continued success

This was the 15th year the PCBC has held
its annual event. Back in 1998, the first
Peace Country Beef Congress was held in
Fairview, when Peace Country cattlemen
wanted to showcase the quality of the cattle they raised. Government funding was
arranged for the first few shows, but the
success of the shows soon attracted sponsors, making the show self-sufficient.
At one point, the show became so successful, the decision was made to move
to Grande Prairie to secure a larger
venue; later on High Prairie was added.
Nine years ago, when the Encana Centre
was built in Dawson Creek, B.C., it was
added into the rotation. Now each town
hosts the event every third year.
This gives many producers the opportunity to get their cattle judged. In the Peace
Country, one of the three towns is always
conveniently located. And although the
congress gets national sponsors, moving
between towns gives local businesses the
chance to get their names out to everyone
who arrives from the large number of surrounding communities.

Competitors and cattle took up most of
the High Prairie AgriPlex during the 2013
Beef Congress, held Jan. 4 and 5.

Bullying doesn’t only
happen in the schoolyard
From the hip } The farm is one of the workplaces where
bullying has been identified as a problem
By brenda schoepp

T

om* continues to work on
the family farm that was
established by his father.
He has a loving wife and five
school-age children. Tom is
getting long past the stage of
waiting on Dad to fulfil his commitments and comes to the realization that he is simply a free
hired hand and that his brothers
and sisters have no intention of
coming back to help. To further
complicate things, Tom feels
pressured and belittled. He is
tired and having health issues.
Tom’s dad Henry* is disappointed that Tom takes time
off work for his frequent health
problems and to spend time with
his family. He is a hard-working
man who expects the same from
his family and has little tolerance
for slack. When Tom is there
Henry never misses a chance
to remind him of his incompetence, all the while increasing
his expectations. Henry has a
habit of failing to include Tom
in important decisions or bank
meetings. To make his position
known, Henry lets the world
know how lazy Tom is and how
many mistakes he makes. Even
if it is Henry who leaves the gate
open, Mother and the coffee
shop crew get to hear all about
Tom’s error.
Tom is being bullied. A recent
Alberta study on bullying identified the workplace, including
the farm, as a key area of complaint. The top complaint was
the inconsistency of policy or
standards. In Tom’s situation,
what Henry said and what he did
were two different stories. The
complete lack of protocols or a
clear definition of expectations
does not allow for clear communication. In this case Tom will
likely never get it right because
he cannot read Henry’s mind.
Henry likes to ignore Tom
when he does not feel like owning
up to an issue or when someone
important is around. When Tom
feels ignored he is one of nearly
50 per cent of workers who feel
the same way. Henry may not
know it but when he looks down
at Tom and ignores his requests
or does not include him in decision-making, this is a form of bullying. And when Henry does talk
and accuse Tom of mistakes, it
makes Tom feel small and frustrated although he is reluctant
to go against his father, because
Father can feign fragility on cue.
So Tom carries on, fixing
behind Dad and covering up
mistakes while living with the
world thinking the mistakes are
made by him. It is one thing to
cover up for Henry but extremely
stressful for Tom to be held
responsible for Henry’s mistakes. To make things worse,
Henry often accuses Tom of
things he did not do and many
days are missed because Tom is
too exhausted to cover anymore.

Constant criticism

Some days are diamonds and
some days are stones between
Tom and Henry but normally at
least one-third of Tom’s day is
under constant criticism. Tom
is not alone — 36 per cent of the

bullied workforce suffers such
barrage from a bad mouth.
Not only is this form of criticism draining, it is also counterproductive. When Tom cannot get out from under it and
when he finally has had enough
and addresses the situation in a
positive way, Henry blows a fuse.
If yelling were a national sport,
Henry wins gold as he strips Tom
down from head to foot, belittling his performance and taking
the opportunity to attack him
and his family.
Last week Tom’s brother came
home with a fancy consultant
to look at a watering design created by Tom. It could have been
a good day but Henry gave full
credit to the brother and himself.
Tom may have been momentarily

speechless but he was far from
dead. His delayed response was
not pretty and Henry could not
wait to gather some sympathy at
the coffee shop within the hour.
It not only broke Tom’s heart but
he came to the realization that
his dream of being on the family
farm had simply vaporized.
And so like so many other men
and women who are bullied, Tom
simply quit, taking his belongings
and his ever-patient family and
moved to start a new life. This
inspired Henry to ensure that
Tom was never to get a cent and
to create chapters of new stories
for the “boys downtown.”
Bully behaviour is for real on
the farm and a huge concern for
workplace health. Unlike other
careers, the farm tends to hold

on to its people, even to the
point of breaking, because they
feel they have no place to go. But
any other place may be a safer,
healthier, stress-free place that
gives you time to think and grow.
If you are being bullied please
seek help from a trusted source.
And what of Tom? Tom may
have been bullied and emotionally bleeding but he was not
down. Moving to a new community and starting again was
hard, but he found himself and
his family surrounded by loving
and supportive people who did
not have preconceived expectations. In removing himself from
the former workplace he was free
to navigate his way to success
and ensure his new farm had
a positive environment, a clear

mandate and a primary focus
on relationships. The processes
he put in place ensured that any
member of the team could do
the job and do so joyfully. And
while Tom’s health and wealth
improved, Henry was back on
the home place hiring and firing
— and trying to find someone —
as good as Tom.
*names changed
Brenda Schoepp is a Nuffield
Scholar who travels extensively
exploring agriculture and meeting
the people who feed, clothe and
educate our world. A motivating
speaker and mentor she works with
young entrepreneurs across Canada
and is the founder of Women in
Search of Excellence. She can be
contacted through her website www.
brendaschoepp.com.

28

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Strangles — highly contagious,
but most horses recover
PREVENTION  Good stable management and biosecurity as

well as vaccination can reduce frequency of the disease
BY CAROL SHWETZ, DVM

S

trangles, also known as
equine distemper, is a highly contagious upper respiratory disease of horses, mules,
and donkeys. Strangles infection,
or the fear of strangles infection,
tends to unsettle many horse owners despite the fact that strangles
itself is rarely fatal. The stigma
attached to this disease is fuelled
by its highly contagious nature
and the striking, often “messy”
clinical signs that accompany it.
Any age of horse can become
infected with strangles, although
generally it is a disease of the
younger horse, less than five years
of age. Cool and damp conditions
tend to favour its occurrence.
Most horses contract the

disease through contact with
infected nasal discharges from a
horse that has an active case of
strangles, or from a horse that has
recently recovered from strangles
and is shedding the bacteria.
Symptoms of infection begin to
appear two to 14 days following exposure to the bacterium,
Streptococcus equi. This bacteria initially invades the tonsillar
tissue of the horse, then spreads
to the lymph nodes of the head
and back of the throat.
Within days the lymph nodes in
the neck and throat-latch become
enlarged, swollen and painful.
Fever, poor appetite, depression
and heavy nasal discharge commonly accompany infection.
Afflicted horses may show difficulty swallowing and develop a
soft, moist, guarded cough, often

standing with their necks outstretched in an attempt to find
relief.
When the infected and enlarged
lymph nodes become increasingly
enlarged, the horse’s breathing
is likely to become impeded/
obstructed. The resulting distressed/strangulating breathing
sounds are what give this disease
its name.
With time, abscesses in the
lymph nodes mature, rupture and
drain a creamy pus. The drainage
is highly contagious. The lymph
nodes in the space between the
jawbones are commonly affected
and drain externally. Other lymph
nodes in the head and throat may
also be involved, but are not as
apparent because many of them
will drain into the horse’s throat
and nasal cavity.

Most horses recover

Typically the disease runs its
clinical course in three to four
weeks. Some horses exhibit a
milder form of the disease with
fever, cough, and nasal discharge,
but no draining abscesses. These
horses often have a level of immunity from prior exposure.
Most horses that contract strangles recover without complications, acquiring a lasting immunity. Symptomatic care while the
disease runs its course is usually
sufficient to aid recovery. This may
include hot packing abscesses to
hasten their maturation, followed
by flushing of the ruptured abscess
with dilute iodine solution. Strict
hygiene is highly advised when
attending infected horses.
Antibiotic therapy remains controversial and is often avoided in

Multiply your operation.

strangles cases. Veterinary
involvement is advisable with
animals in respiratory distress or
with unrelenting malaise. Severe
and complicated cases generally
do require antibiotics and other
supportive therapies.
Complications are most likely
to arise when horses are immunocompromised or stressed and
thus struggle with clearing the
bacteria. This includes animals
that are very young, old, heavily
parasitized, in crowded or inadequate and unsanitary housing
conditions or animals receiving
inadequate nutrition.
When the immune system fails to
contain the bacteria to the lymph
nodes of the head and neck, the
lymph nodes of the thorax, abdomen or brain can become infected.
This form of the disease is known
as “bastard strangles.” Another
complication of strangles is an
immune-mediated disease called
purpura hemorrhagica. Both scenarios often have a poor outcome.

It is estimated that
up to 20 per cent of
all recovered horses
shed S. equi from their
nasal secretions for up
to six weeks following
resolution of clinical
signs.

Long-term carriers

The most frustrating complication
of this disease is the development
of the chronic asymptomatic carrier. It is estimated that up to 20 per
cent of all recovered horses shed S.
equi from their nasal secretions for
up to six weeks following resolution
of clinical signs. It is these horses
that tend to spread the disease as
owners often feel that the horse
is “recovered” and of no harm to
other horses. Contaminated water
buckets, feed tubs, housing or handlers can also source the infection.
A very small percentage of horses
continue to shed the bacteria for
months to years beyond the original illness, serving as an ongoing
source of recurrent infections.
The carrier horse can be very
difficult to identify. Currently consecutive negative nasal swabs are
cultured as a means to identify carriers. Maintaining good biosecurity
measures, isolation and meticulous
hygienic procedures are necessary
to prevent introduction and spread
of the disease.
Field experience suggests that
vaccinating horses reduces the
incidence and severity of strangles.
Vaccination is not an absolute prevention nor is it deemed useful in
all situations. It can be considered
a tool in strangles management,
not a replacement for good stable
management and biosecurity. Thus
far intranasal vaccination results in
the best local immunity.

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Capitalizing on NIRS technology
in a commercial feed mill
Peet on Pigs } Machine allows feeder to check against nutrient content provided by the supplier
By bernie peet

I

n the current high feedprice climate, knowing
the nutritional value of an
ingredient can make a big difference to the cost of feeding a
pig. It also allows more accurate formulation so that the
pig’s nutritional requirements
can be met more accurately,
and performance targets met.
In recent years, the use of
Near Infrared Reflectance
Spectroscopy (NIRS) has
become affordable for the feed
industry and even for individual producers, providing the
opportunity to capitalize on its
capability for quick and accurate nutrient analysis. At two
recent workshops held in Lethbridge and Lacombe, Alberta,
feed manufacturers, nutritionists and producers heard how
this technology can be used to
save feed costs.
“NIRS can be used in three
ways,” said Geoff Smith with
DFS Animal Nutrition, Newell, Iowa, who has been using
it since 2006. “First, we use

it for purchasing, to help us
understand the value of different materials from various
sources. We also use it to check
compliance with quoted specifications, and finally we use it
as the basis for formulation.”
For purchasing and formulation, NIRS is used to observe
nutrient trends in raw materials, either due to changes in
the process carried out by the
supplier or, for example, when
changing from one season’s
crop to the next.
Smith said individual suppliers and supplier locations
are compared and the data
used for “shadow pricing,”
where the nutrient value of
the material is compared to
the price charged. This allows
purchasing on the basis of
nutrient costs, which means
that the cheapest materials by
weight will not always be the
best value nutritionally.

DDGS example

As an example of supplier
monitoring, Smith showed
data for corn DDGS from a
specific plant, where crude fat

content fell from 10.3 per cent
to 8.7 per cent as changes were
made to improve the efficiency
of fat removal (Figure 1).
“The graph shows that there
were several ‘blips’ due to plant
maintenance or shutdown and
overall a lot of variation,” he
said. “However, the supplier
doesn’t always tell you what
is going on so you can’t take
advantage of, say, a high oil
level. You also need to recognize when changes are likely
to happen, for example when
new-harvest corn comes in.”
Different sources will have
different nutrient values for
the same raw material. For
example, there can be a wide
range of variation between different sources of DDGS. Demonstrating an example for a
specific finisher diet, “This can
lead to a difference in cost in
the finished diet of $8.24 in a
$300-plus diet, and this is a
lot,” Smith said.
For materials such as soybean meal and meat and bone
meal, there is a specification
that they must meet. “We monitor these to identify any product that is ‘out of bounds,’ then
inform the supplier,” Smith
said. “We can use the NIRS
data to make a claim for the
value of the difference between
the spec and the actual value.
It’s not a good tool to use as a
club, but we use it to influence
suppliers and to help them to
understand what their product
is worth.”

Database

DFS Animal Nutrition has
developed a database called
Datamaster to handle the
masses of information coming
from the NIRS and laboratory
analyses.
“Data can be imported
directly from the NIRS
machine, so that there is no
dual entry of information

Geoff Smith, from DFS Animal Nutrition, Newell, Iowa, speaking at a
recent meeting in Lacombe, Alberta.
and it also includes other,
non-NIRS data,” Smith said.
It’s also web based so can be
accessed from anywhere and
it has filtering capabilities to
check the veracity of data. If
a mistake is made, it’s identified and then odd results can
be removed before adding to
the database.
Smith said that when dealing
with so many analyses, accurate
labelling of samples is vital so
that there is precise identification of each one.
Changes to feed formulations
are made based on the analytical data as new materials enter
the mill.
“This is mostly driven by product flow and changes are determined by how often you can
justify a change in formulation,”
Smith said. “It’s also driven by
economics and changes will be
made if the value is significant.”
Smith said that although
they carry out shadow pricing

continuously, it is difficult to
segregate materials by bin and
take advantage of differences in
nutrient content, but doing so
would add further value to the
use of NIRS.
The main value in using NIRS
comes from holding suppliers to
claims, especially with soybean
meal, and in being more accurate
in the feeding of key nutrients.
“The NIRS machine can pay
for itself very quickly, in some
cases it could be less than a
year,” Smith said. “Also, when
feed costs are high, people are
much more focused on nutrient content, the cost of those
nutrients and, of course, the
performance of the feeds. Being
able to fulfil their needs more
accurately can certainly impact
customer satisfaction.”
Bernie Peet is president of
Pork Chain Consulting of
Lacombe, Alberta, and editor
of Western Hog Journal

these animals were raised in
accordance with the highest
animal welfare standards in the
U.S. and Canada, using sustainable agriculture methods on an
independent family farm,” AWA
said in a release.
TK Ranch is operated by Colleen and Dylan Biggs. In 2010,
the ranch received the National
Prairie Conservation Award.

www.cyff.ca Ph: 888-416-2965

INNOVATION · INSPIRATION

MOTIVATION
EDUCATION

Veteran sheep
producer says high
standards are the
key to his success
HIGH STANDARDS } Patrick Smith’s ewes

produce an average of 3.4 lambs
and have to lamb on their own or else they
are culled from the flock

ThE CYFF BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTISES PROGRAM

The CYFF BMP Program will be delivered in Alberta,
southern Ontario, Manitoba and the Maritimes.
REGISTER NOW by calling the CYFF office at
888-416-2965 or by email: bmpsessions@cyff.ca
BMP topics include:

The BMP program is designed to
motivate young farmers to improve
and identify their operations needs
with confidence.

8th Annual Family Day Sale
February 18, 2013
1:00 p.m. at the farm at Athabasca, AB – Lunch at 11:30 a.m.

300 HEAD SELL

•

150 Red and Black coming 2 year old Bulls that
have been grown out slowly, primarily on forage.

• Our bulls will not be as fat as you will �ind at other
sales.
• They are deep bodied, easy �leshing bulls with lots of
capacity.

• They are bred to perform, yet have calving ease and
possess strong maternal traits.
Mothers of Sale Bulls Grazing December 31, 2012

•

150 Elite Commercial Heifers bred to easy calving

Angus Bulls for 45 days to start calving May 1st. 100%
HOME RAISED. THE RIGHT KIND.

• These bulls and heifers have been produced in a high
volume, low maintenance environment. Ole Farms is
now the largest Purebred Angus operation in Alberta.
We run 1600 cows and do not have time for high
maintenance cattle.
• Pro�itability is key in our breeding decisions.
Our goal is to make YOUR operation more pro�itable.

f you want a high-performance flock, you can’t tolerate problem ewes, says a
veteran Manitoba producer.
“We have always been very vigorous about removing any ewe
that has any problems,” Patrick
Smith said at a recent Alberta
Lamb Producers meeting in
Leduc.
“If the ewe can’t succeed in
our operation, it has to go. If you
don’t do this religiously, you’ll
never end up with a flock that is
truly self-sufficient.”
Smith runs 2,350 Rideaucross ewes on a farm near Sarto
in southern Manitoba. Sarto
Sheep Farms is primarily a confinement operation organized
around a feedlot and mixed
pasture. Smith has just 80 acres
of pasture as he has found ewes
are unable to maintain enough
condition on pasture to meet his
high lambing goals.
“What we looked for were
animals that could and would
deliver quads at a size that
allowed them to be self-sufficient,” he said.
Smith’s system is designed to
minimize labour needs.
“With 2,350 ewes and 5,000
lambs each year, it’s just not feasible to run sheep that require
extra attention,” he said.
His ewes produce an average
of 3.4 lambs and have to lamb
on their own, as Smith and his
workers do not go into the barn
between 10 at night and 7 in the
morning. He keeps bright lights
on 24 hours a day in the lambing area, so ewes and lambs can
locate each other. The sheep are
on a two-week breeding cycle.
Ewes begin breeding at nine
months of age, and are rebred
every eight months. Lambing
occurs every two weeks.

Heavy culling

The first rule is to cull any ewe
requiring extra time or effort.
Smith, who has been raising

sheep for more than 40 years,
culls 15 to 20 per cent of his
ewes, relying on carefully kept
records to make decisions.
“It’s important to use the
records to determine who you
are going to cull,” he said.
“Almost always, the sheep who
looks the best is the worst. Just
because a ewe is 10 years old,
it doesn’t mean she should be
culled. She should be culled
because she doesn’t perform.”
Ewes that come out of lambing looking thin can be good
ewes, especially if they are
feeding big quads, he said.
Young ewes are allowed to
have singles, but older ones
are expected to produce twins,
triplets or quads. Ewes that
have second singles are culled,
as are ewes that miss a lambing
cycle. Ewes with poor udders as
culled, as are their female offspring. He also selects for lack
of wildness.
Smith said he believes it is
important to have a mortality
rate below six per cent preweaning.
“A lot of people have come
to accept that 15 to 20 per cent
mortality in a multiple-lambing
environment is acceptable. I
don’t think it is,” he said.
Smith runs the operation,
which mostly sells breeding stock, with a small staff
that includes his wife, a fulltime farm manager, and one
employee. The key is having
simple procedures that are rigorously applied, he said.
“We know where the tools are
and how to do specific operations,” said Smith. “Because
everything is done the same way
as part of the cycle, everyone
who is participating knows what
to do and does it effectively.”
Consistency is also critical to
establishing a brand, he said.
Smith recommends that people
who are getting into the industry buy all their sheep from one
flock to avoid problems. Buyers
are allowed to come to his farm
and work with him for a week to
see how things are done.

31

}

Helps rivers

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

Rain misses wheat belt

El Niño unlikely into spring

Heavy rainfall over the weekend of Jan. 12-13 in the southern Midwest provided muchneeded soil moisture in some areas and also boosted river water levels, an agricultural
meteorologist said Jan. 15. However, the western Midwest and Plains States, areas where
nearly all of the U.S. hard red winter wheat is grown, remained dry, and there are no
forecasts for drought-relieving rain or snow soon. “Dry weather will prevail in core drought
areas of the western Midwest and Central Plains through the last half of January,” said Joel
Widenor, agricultural meteorologist for Commodity Weather Group. — Reuters

The U.S. national weather forecaster has reiterated its prediction that the much-feared El Niño
phenomenon is unlikely to affect the Northern Hemisphere weather this spring. In its monthly report
on Jan. 10, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said conditions will remain neutral for the next few
months, further reducing the chances of a drought in Asia and flooding in South America. The report
also raised the possibility that the pattern that can wreak havoc on weather would not reappear before
the summer, but said a forecast so far ahead covering the April to June period may not be accurate. —
Reuters

More of the world’s weather
stories from 2012
Part 2 } Major weather events included Hurricane Isaac,

hot rain in Mecca and Greenland’s major melt
by daniel bezte

I

t has been a fairly active
start to 2013 across much of
Canada. With heavy snows
over parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, blizzard conditions
over southern Manitoba, recordshattering heat over southern
Ontario, and the season’s first
big snowstorm in Newfoundland. If this keeps up, 2013 just
might be one of those weather
years for the record books —
much like 2012!
In this issue we’re not going
to look ahead to see what 2013
might hold in store for us; that
will be in a few weeks. Instead,
we are going to continue our
look at what I think were the
top weather stories around the
world in 2012. Instead of ranking
them like most lists, I chose to
look at the weather on a monthby-month basis, picking out the
biggest weather stories for each.
In our last article I finished up
with April, a surprisingly quiet
month globally. May continued
this quiet trend, although there
were a few notable weather
events. The two most prominent of those were tied together:
record heat over Europe and
extreme record heat over Greenland. A persistent area of low
pressure allowed warm Saharan air to invade much of central
Europe during the last few days
of April and the first week or so of
May. Temperatures soared into
the low 30s in Austria, Poland
and Germany during this earlyseason heat wave. Later in the
month, climate records were
rewritten over the southern coast
of Greenland when the temperature at Narsarsuaq reached 24.8
C. This was the hottest temperature ever recorded in May
for Greenland and was just 0.7
C below its all-time record high.

Warmest.
Temperatures. Ever

There were, I think, two weather
stories in June worthy of discussion. The first occurred June 5
in the city of Mecca, when sea
breeze from the Red Sea pushed
inland creating thunderstorms
with some light rain. What’s
astounding was that rain fell
when the temperature in Mecca
was 43 C, making it the hottest

rain ever recorded! The other
big event was the record-warm
temperatures over much of the
central U.S. During the last week
of June nearly five per cent of the
main long-term weather reporting stations in the region broke
all-time record highs. These were
not just June all-time records,
but rather, records for the warmest temperatures ever recorded!
This was definitely a heat wave
that would rival the 1930s-era
dust bowl.
The big story of July was not
the continuation of the heat
over much of the central U.S
and southern Canada, but the
extreme heat over Greenland.
On July 12, satellites observed
that 97 per cent of Greenland had
experienced melting, something
that only appears to occur naturally every 150 years or so. At the
top of Greenland a weather station that has only reported four
days above freezing over the
last 12 years experienced five
days during June with abovefreezing temperatures. These
warm temperatures and melting resulted in record flooding
and may have contributed to a
massive 119-square-kilometre
iceberg breaking off the Petermann Glacier. I think I also have
to note Death Valley, California
broke the world record for the
warmest overnight low on July
12, when the thermometer only
dropped down to 41.7 C (107 F).
The big weather story for
August was probably Hurricane
Isaac, which formed in the tropical Atlantic on June 21, hit the
Dominican Republic and Haiti
on the 25th, and finally made
landfall in the U.S. near New
Orleans on Aug. 30. While Isaac
wasn’t an exceptionally strong
hurricane it was very slow moving. This resulted in rainfall totals
exceeding 400 to 500 mm (15 to
20 inches). The reason for Isaac’s
slow motion was the continued
drought over the central and
northern U.S., which helped to
intensify a ridge of high pressure
over this region, preventing Isaac
from moving northward.
I think unquestionably the biggest weather story of September
was the record-low Arctic ice.
After ice levels over the Arctic
Ocean reached near-average
levels in April, the ice began to
quickly melt from May through

into August. This melt was mostly
due to the fact that previous
years’ melts have greatly reduced
the amount of multi-year ice,
leaving mostly thin one- or
two-year-old ice that is susceptible to quick melting. Weather
conditions over the Arctic were
warmer than average, but overall, they were not conducive to
extreme melting. By the time
Sept. 16 rolled around, sea ice
extent had fallen to 3.41 million
square km, beating the previous
record set in 2007 by 18 per cent.
This past year was also the fifth
in a row (and also the fifth time
in recorded history) in which
ice-free navigation was possible
in both the Northwest Passage
and the Russian Passage.
Once again that’s all the room
I have for this issue. Next I’ll finish my roundup of 2012 world
weather events, then take a quick
look at Canada’s top 10 weather
stories from 2012.

Continued drought over the central and northern
U.S. helped to prevent Isaac from moving northward.

This map is created by Environment Canada, but I do a fair bit of tidying up of the data
displayed to make it easier to read. Because of this, the data on the map should be seen as
giving you a general idea of how much snow there is across the Prairies. This is especially
true for southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. For the first time in a couple
of years there is significant snow cover across all three Prairie provinces. If this keeps up I
might need to add a 100-plus-cm measurement as this value has already been reached over the
mountains and in north-central Manitoba.

32

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

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33

WHEAT COMMISSION HOLDS FIRST AGM
The Alberta Wheat Commission holds its inaugural annual meeting at the Westin Hotel
in Edmonton on Monday, Jan. 28. The meeting will provide wheat producers with
the opportunity to meet the 2013 board of directors and regional representatives
in person, learn more about the business of the new organization, and hear updates
on priorities for 2013. Eligible producers will have the opportunity to vote on two
resolutions, and elect a director-at-large who will represent the interests and
perspectives of wheat growers across the province on the AWC’s board of directors.

Tillage radish has numerous uses but
excels at breaking up hardpan layers
UNDER PRESSURE  The brassica crop produces a “super carrot” type of root that
can generate pressure of 240 pounds per square inch to bust through hardpan
BY HELEN MCMENAMIN

AF CONTRIBUTOR/LETHBRIDGE

T

illage radish seems to be a crop
with almost endless uses.
It can break up a hardpan
better than costly deep rippers and
subsoilers, provide forage for cattle,
prevent soil erosion, and boost yields
in following crops.
Tilley-area seed grower Patrick
Fabian has seen it work well in a wide
variety of situations.
“We first started looking at these
radishes three years ago as a soilremediation crop,” says Fabian.
“Especially with irrigation, nutrients
can be lost below the rooting zone of
most crops, even sunflower.”
That’s not a problem for tillage
radish, a brassica and relative of
canola. Its “super carrot” type root
grows and if the main root meets
resistance — like a hardpan layer —
lateral roots spread out to find tiny
cracks and force their way in.
“Radishes go right through all
sorts of hard layers that stopped
other crop roots,” says Fabian. “I’ve
been told they can exert as much as
240 pounds per square inch of pressure to penetrate hard layers in the
subsoil. They bend a little to find
a crack in the hardpan, then they
keep growing below that hard layer
and bring moisture and nutrients
up closer to the soil surface where
other crops can use it.”
Fabian advises seeding tillage radishes after June 21, when days are
getting shorter, but likes to see them
go in even later, after another crop is
harvested. Seeded earlier they don’t
produce as much root. He advises
seeding them after winter wheat or

silage barley harvest or even later
after other crops.
“It’s an almost instant cover crop
after beans or potatoes or other crops
that don’t leave any cover,” he says.
For late-harvested special crops, he
suggests blowing on strips of radish
in crop — even at the same time as
herbicides or other crop protectants.
Next year, he’s going to seed some
radishes in crop, blowing the seed on
and working along his sprayer tracks
so he’ll have 40-foot-wide strips of
cover crops every 90 feet.

Despite its tough tap root, the tillage
radish doesn’t overwinter.
“Three nights of -9 C will kill it,”
says Fabian. “The roots rot almost
entirely over a winter and leave channels that help roots of following crops
grow and spread quickly. A whole
crown can leave a hole about two
inches across. They’re almost like a
gopher hole but with no mound of
earth and no badger diggings. They
leave a lot of nutrients in the soil
around the old root.”
Several of Fabian’s seed customers
have used tillage radishes on part of a
field to see whether they make a difference to following crops.
“One guy put in an irrigation half-

circle he seeded to barley silage,” he
says. “The next summer he called to
tell me he didn’t need to weigh the
crop to know there was a difference.
Where the radishes were, the crop
was taller, it filled faster, and the
silage wagon filled up faster.”
Even though it’s a brassica plant, it
isn’t affected as much by diseases or
insects as canola. Nor is it a host for
clubroot, a major concern for crop
pathologists because other brassicas,
such as cabbage, can harbour the
pathogen and infect the soil.
Tillage radish is a very long-season
crop, so Fabian has to import the
seed, but the cost is reasonable. This
year seed was $3.45 a pound, so $10
an acre was enough to seed into a
crop for erosion protection. For a
cover crop after an early-harvested
crop, Fabian advises seeding about
six pounds per acre.
Scott Lehr, a Medicine Hat cattleman, has had his cows grazing
through the fall and early winter on
a mixture of cover crops he seeded
after silage harvest in early August.
He put in winter triticale and winter
wheat that he hopes will overwinter
for a silage crop next year. He also
mixed in tillage radishes, sunflower
and canola to penetrate and break
up the hard soil without using tillage equipment.
“I’m hoping the roots will make
channels that will help the soil
absorb moisture rather than allowing it to run off,” he says. “And once
the moisture gets into the channels
I’m hoping to get some freeze-thaw
action — ice is powerful.”
Lehr notes some other tillage radish characteristics.
“The radishes have much deeper,
stronger roots than the sunflower or

Tillage radish — the long root —
compared to canola and sunflower
from Scott Lehr’s field.
the canola. It’s hard to dig in the hard
ground, but I’ve broken off roots 16
inches or more into the ground. They
go deeper, but they narrow as they
go down,” he says. “The cows didn’t
eat the radishes at first — they ate the
heads off the sunflowers and grazed
on the winter cereals first. By early
January though, they’ve been grazing
the radish leaves as well.”
Lehr wants his land to absorb more
moisture so he doesn’t get run-off
as he irrigates. He has the radishes
under irrigation, but in the corners
where the pivot doesn’t reach, the
radishes haven’t done as well.
“They were a good companion
crop,” he says. “They grew well, but
they didn’t crowd out the triticale or
the wheat.”
He plans to grow radishes again as
they fit with his no-till approach.
“I don’t think they’re a one-year
fix,” he says.
“But if they’ll help get moisture
into the soil and provide some grazing for the cows, that’s better than
pulling iron around.”

Lab error paves the way for potential
breakthrough in storage of leafcutter bees
Fluctuation } Raising the temperature for an hour a day in cold storage boosts survival prospects

by shannon vanraes
staff

S

cientists may have found
a way to increase the shelf
life of leafcutter bees, even
if they didn’t intend to.
“Honestly, we misprogramed
an incubator and blundered
into it,” said Joseph Rinehart, a
USDA research biologist at the
Red River Valley Agricultural
Research Center in Fargo, N.D.
After mistakenly programming
a daily hour-long increase in temperature, the researchers discovered the leafcutter bees were better
able to withstand cold storage for
longer periods of time.

More research is required to find
out what exactly is taking place, but
the researchers have been able to
successfully keep leafcutter bees in
storage for nearly two years, Rinehart said at a recent meeting of the
Manitoba Forage Seed Association
in Winnipeg.
“The ultimate goal is to get it so
that you can use the bees for either
this year, or next year, in the alfalfa
field,” said Rinehart. “We’re very
close to that.”
Early crops that make use of leafcutter bees, such as onion seed,
could also benefit by a greater ability to control the time of emergence.
“It looks like your table scraps
— the bees that didn’t actually get
used in the alfalfa field this year —

can be used next year with fluctuating thermal regime,” he said.
Longer storage periods would
also make the transportation of
bees, especially over long distances,
more feasible, Rinehart said.
But exactly how this technology
will make the leap from the lab to the
farm still has yet to be nailed down.
The researcher notes he has the
luxury of storing his bees “almost
individually,” allowing precise temperature changes and easy airflow.
Most producers store their bees
in bulk, which makes it a challenge
to do what Rinehart does — raise
the storage temperature from 6 C
to 20 C before returning it back to
6 C an hour later.
The researcher said engineers

are working on that problem, as
are some producers, but that now
isn’t the time to go in whole hog.
“I’m always nervous when someone else is going to bet their money
on my idea, so I’m suggesting we
take it slow,” Rinehart said.
More research needs to be done
on the quality of bee produced by
this method as well, he said.

“If they come out, but they are
not reproductively viable that
would suck, so we’re working on
that to make sure all our bases are
covered before we make suggestions to anybody,” he stressed.
That being said, if you have a
couple of extra gallons of bees at
the end of the summer “you might
give it a try,” he added.

Sponsored by your local AGROTAIN® nitrogen stabilizer representative

The need for speed
Surface urea application can
make you more efficient

Joseph Rinehart, a research biologist with the United States Department
of Agriculture, speaks to the Manitoba Forage Seed Association about
storing leafcutter bees. PHOTo: Shannon VanRaes

By Earl Greenhough
Earl Greenhough

Seeding is a race. How much
does having to work with
the fertilizer tank slow you
down? With a few changes to
your nitrogen approach, you
can make your early-season
operation more efficient.
One simple way to speed
up seeding is to avoid
the hassle and expense
of putting all your nitrogen
down with the air drill.
Before seeding, right
after seeding or even
after emergence,
substitute in a broadcast
application with urea
protected by AGROTAIN®
nitrogen stabilizer.
By adding AGROTAIN®
stabilizer, growers can apply
urea to their fields without
having to put it into the soil

— and they keep the nitrogen
available for the crop.

seeding to stop and fill the
fertilizer tank.

AGROTAIN stabilizer can
be blended with urea-based
fertilizer products to reduce
surface loss from ammonia
volatilization. Urease breaks
down urea into a form
that can be lost into the air
when the urea is still on the
soil surface. AGROTAIN®
stabilizer works by blocking
the urease enzyme in
the soil.

So when you have a need
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Spread out your workload
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Want help figuring out how
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And you can cut down on all
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Ask the Nitrogen
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35

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

Monsanto to launch first new
novel biotech trait in 18 years
TRUFLEX  New trait allows double the rate of application than the existing Genuity Roundup Ready canola system
STAFF

M

onsanto Canada will
launch in 2014 what is
billed as the first novel
biotech trait in canola to be introduced to western Canadian farmers since 1996.
TruFlex Roundup Ready canola
trait maximizes yield opportunity
through enhanced weed control
and increased flexibility, the
company says in a release.
The Canadian Food Inspection
Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada granted full food, feed and
environmental safety approval
to the new trait in June 2012.
Monsanto anticipates offering a
commercial preview to farmers
in 2014.
TruFlex Roundup Ready canola
will serve as the base platform
on which all future Monsanto

pipeline traits in canola will be
stacked, the release says.
“Over the years, we’ve had
plenty of opportunity to receive
feedback from growers and they
have consistently communicated
the need to bring yield and agronomics to the next level over
older canola trait technologies,”
said Jesse Hamonic, canola trait
marketing lead with Monsanto
Canada based in Winnipeg.
Speaking to farmers and industry stakeholders at a VIP reception in Saskatoon as part of the
Crop Production Show, Hamonic said Monsanto’s goal with
any new trait introduction is to
bring a “step-change” to farmers.
He said he’s confident TruFlex Roundup Ready canola will
deliver higher yields through a
combination of enhanced weed
control that provides more effective and consistent control of

both annual weeds and tough-tocontrol perennials, and through
increased flexibility provided by
a wider window of application
at higher rates under more challenging weather conditions.

Monsanto invites
nominations to
fund community
projects

“We think the increased
flexibility provided by
the wider window of
application is really
going to appeal to
farmers.”

JESSE HAMONIC

“Dandelions, foxtail barley and
wild buckwheat are some examples of tough-to-control perennial and annual weeds that will
have improved control with the
new TruFlex Roundup Ready
canola system,” said David Kelner, Monsanto’s canola technical lead for Western Canada. “As
well, the increased application
rate allows for control of a much
wider spectrum of weeds, with
the ability to now control new
weeds such as yellow foxtail,
biennial wormwood and common milkweed.”

Higher rate

The new trait will allow farmers
to apply Roundup WeatherMAX
in crop at a rate of 1.33 litres/
acre for a single application or
0.67 litres/acre for two applications. This is more than double
the rate of application with the

existing Genuity Roundup Ready
canola system.
As well, the window of application extends past the six-leaf
stage all the way to the first
flower which is 10 to 14 days
longer than current commercial
technologies.
“We think the increased flexibility provided by the wider window
of application is really going to
appeal to farmers,” said Hamonic.
“Farmers are increasingly pressed
for time and TruFlex Roundup
Ready canola will give them almost
two weeks more time to spray
without causing harm to the crop.”
Monsanto Canada is seeking
regulatory approvals in six key
export markets identified by
the Canola Council of Canada’s
Market Access Policy. Regulatory
approvals are already secured in
Canada and food safety approvals have been granted in the U.S.

Get the cleanest fields in the fastest way possible this spring. Tank-mix
glyphosate with HEAT® herbicide and you’ll get the most complete

he Monsanto Fund has
announced that it is now
accepting 2013 applications for its Canada’s Farmers
Grow Communities program. It
provides farmers with a chance
to win $2,500 for a local charitable or not-for-profit group.
First offered on a Canadawide basis in 2012, a total of 58
winners nominated by farmers in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
and northeastern B.C. received
$145,000. They covered a wide
range of focus areas from agricultural societies, playgrounds,
day cares and school projects to
community sporting organizations, libraries and health/service groups. A complete listing
is posted at www.CanadasFarm
ers.ca.
In 2013, two $2,500 grants will
be awarded in each of 30 different territories across the graingrowing regions of northeastern B.C. (Peace River district),
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
The application submission
period has been extended for
2013, giving farmers more
time to consider and submit
an application until Sept. 30,
2013. Complete contest rules
and an online application form
are available at www.Canadas
Farmers.ca.
Farmers who are 19 years of
age or older and actively engaged
in farming corn, soybeans and/
or canola on at least 160 acres
in Western Canada, or corn or
soybeans on at least 80 acres in
Eastern Canada, are eligible to
participate in the program. Nonfarming residents living within
rural communities can go online
and make suggestions of worthy
groups or projects.

For the

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36

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

TO THE HILLS

Jean and Bill Carruthers point their sleds west towards the Rocky Mountains, as they sleigh across their property, near Millarville, Alta. When not driving and sledding horses, Bill is
a farrier. PHOTO: WENDY DUDLEY

Mexico reported outbreaks
of highly pathogenic bird flu
virus at two egg farms and that
these had been resolved after
the culling of nearly 300,000
birds, world animal health
body OIE said Jan. 9.
A total of 740 poultry had
died from the virus which
emerged in the two egg farms
located in the central state of
Aguascalientes, said a report
by the Mexican Agriculture
Ministry to Paris-based OIE.
The virus, reported to be
the highly pathogenic avian
influenza serotype H7N3,
is different from the deadly
H5N1 strain, which has devastated duck and chicken
flocks and caused hundreds of
human deaths after it was first
detected in 1997 in Hong Kong.
Outbreaks of H7N3 occurred
previously in Mexico, with the
latest one in September last
year in the northeastern part
of the state of Jalisco, which
is near Aguascalientes, it said.
“Timely notification from
the farmer and surveillance
activities allowed immediate depopulation of the two
affected production units, reason why both outbreaks identified are closed,” the ministry
said in the report.
Countries that are members
of OIE have the obligation to
report outbreaks of certain
animal diseases to the Parisbased organizaton.
The ministry said it was still
doing active and passive surveillance at national level and
that epidemiological investigation was ongoing. The
source of the outbreaks or
origin of the infection was still
unknown.

lberta’s wheat midge forecast for
2013 indicates an increase in midge
risk. Pockets of moderate to high risk
are found in central and southern Alberta.
Throughout central and southern Alberta
individual fields could have a high population even if the forecast in the area is low.
Producers should pay attention to midge
downgrading in their wheat samples and
use this as a further indication of midge risk
in their fields. Wheat midge was confirmed
in the Peace region in 2011 but the survey
indicates that levels remain low there. Individual fields throughout Alberta may still
have economic levels of midge. Each producer also needs to assess their risk based
on indicators specific to their farm.
The 2012 fall survey included wheatgrowing areas throughout Alberta. In total
297 samples were taken from 57 counties.
The survey involves taking soil samples
from wheat fields after harvest using a standard soil probe. Larval cocoons are washed
out of the soil using a specialized series of
screens. Larvae are counted, and then dis-

sected to determine if they are parasitized.
The midge density displayed on the forecast
map is based on viable (live, non-parasitized) midge larvae.
This forecast is not intended to take the
place of individual field monitoring. It is
important to note that over such a wide
range, populations in individual fields can
be and often are highly variable. Producers
should plan to monitor their fields when the
midge adults are flying and their wheat is
in the susceptible stage. In all areas where
midge is present growers are urged to
monitor their wheat fields from wheat head
emergence to anthesis (the susceptible
stage). Regular field scouting on multiple
nights in succession is important in understanding the population in a particular field.
Parasitism of midge larvae by small
wasps (Macroglens penetrans) has been
important in keeping wheat midge populations below the economic threshold in
many areas. These beneficial wasps tend
to thrive in warm, dry conditions. Parasite
populations increase and decrease with
changes in the midge population and are
very important in moderating population
levels in Alberta.

BRIEF
U of Calgary
student receives
scholarship
Tariq Munir, who is entering
his third year of a full-time
PhD degree program in the
department of geography at
the University of Calgary, is
one of two 2012 recipients
of the Agricultural Institute
of Canada Foundation Dr.
Karl C. Ivarson (soils) scholarship. Munir is continuing
research on the “potential
effects of climate change
on soil biogeochemistry of
a boreal Alberta peatland.”
This is a field-based experimental project in which Mr.
Munir has applied drainage
and warming treatments and
is monitoring carbon gas
exchange, nutrient availability and dissolved organic and
inorganic carbon to investigate the potential impact of
climate change on organic
soil carbon stocks.
The second Ivarson scholarship was awarded to Alexander Koiter, a PhD student
at the University of Northern
British Columbia, where his
thesis work focuses on sediment fingerprinting.

Former ag minister
John Wise passes
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Memorial services were held
Jan. 14 in St. Thomas, Ont. for
John Wise, the southwestern
Ontario dairyman who served
as the federal agriculture
minister for Brian Mulroney
and Joe Clark.
Wise, the Progressive Conservative MP for Ontario’s
Elgin constituency from
1972 to 1988, died Jan. 9 at
age 77 at Victoria Hospital at
London, Ont. Wise became
minister of agriculture in
1979 during the Tories’ short
stint in government under
Joe Clark. He was returned to
the ag critic’s chair in 1980,
opposite Pierre Trudeau’s ag
minister Eugene Whelan, and
became agriculture minister
again 1984-88.

38

JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

Survey indicates low risk seen for sawflies in 2013

Brief

Downward trend } Lowest level of concern since the outbreak began over 13 years ago
AARD release

T

he area at risk of economically significant sawfly
populations in 2013 will
be limited to only a few areas.
The 2012 field margin survey
shows low populations in most
of the area surveyed including
the traditional sawfly areas in
the Special Areas.
The damage ratings are based
on 71 fields in 17 municipalities. One field was found with
elevated but still low sawfly
infestation in the MD of Acadia.
The most significant populations are in Forty Mile County
in southern Alberta. Overall this
is the lowest level of sawfly concern since the outbreak began
over 13 years ago. This continues the downward trend of sawfly populations that is the result
of the use of solid stem wheat
and naturally occurring parasitoids. Individual fields may still
have higher wheat stem sawfly

populations than are indicated in late June through early July.
in the survey map.
Winter conditions have very litThe wheat stem sawfly map tle impact on sawfly populations
is based on cut stem counts and a high proportion of wheat
conducted after the 2012 har- stems cut in the fall will produce
vest. The per cent of stems cut adults. Producers in areas with
by sawfly gives an indication moderate to high levels of cutof the number of reproductive
ting should consider using solidB:8.125”
adult sawflies that will emerge
stem wheat as a control strategy.
T:8.125”

Italy to launch
durum wheat
futures market
on Jan. 21

It is possible that population hot spots still exist in
areas of lower risk, individual
producers need to be aware
of the potential risks in their
own fields. Cutting levels
higher than 10 to 15 per cent
in the previous crop indicate
the need to consider seeding
solid-stem wheat to reduce
sawfly losses. It is important
farmers evaluate their individual situations in making
their variety choices. When
populations are low it is typical to have small, localized
populations of sawfly that
affect only one field or even
just a portion of one field.
Parasitism can reduce populations and reduce the level
of cutting. A parasitic wasp,
Bracon cephi, has been shown
to have significant impact on
sawfly populations. The use
of solid-stem wheat varieties
and the increase in parasitism
are the major factors in lower
sawfly populations in Alberta.

milan / reuters
Europe’s first futures market for durum wheat, used
mainly to produce pasta
in the continent and couscous in North Africa and
the Middle East, will get off
the ground on Jan. 21, the
Italian stock market said
Jan. 9.
Borsa Italiana, controlled by the London
Stock Exchange, was due to
launch the durum futures
in November but the date
was put back for market
conditions.
The new AGREX futures,
which will be traded on
the Italian Derivatives
Exchange Market (IDEM),
will trade in 50-tonne contracts, with five maturities
available at any one time.
The delivery months will
be March, May, September
and December.
Italian pasta maker
Barilla advised the Italian
exchange on the launch of
the market.
Futures could be useful for Barilla and other
big durum wheat buyers
to help cope with volatile
grain prices. Traders have
said the new index could
find it hard to build enough
liquidity and trading volumes.
Grain futures generally
take a long time to attract
a large trading base, and
the minimal volumes seen
since the launch of durum
futures in Canada at the
start of the year have highlighted the difficulties in
the niche grain market.

S:8.125”

Comes out fighting.

T:10”

Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence
Through StewardshipSM (ETS). Monsanto products are
commercialized in accordance with ETS Product Launch
Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with
Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of BiotechnologyDerived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. This
product has been approved for import into key export
markets with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop
or material produced from this product can only be
exported to, or used, processed or sold in countries where
all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It
is a violation of national and international law to move
material containing biotech traits across boundaries
into nations where import is not permitted. Growers
should talk to their grain handler or product purchaser to
confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence
Through StewardshipSM is a service mark of Excellence
Through Stewardship. ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW
PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops
contain genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, the
active ingredient in Roundup® agricultural herbicides.
Roundup® agricultural herbicides will kill crops that are
not tolerant to glyphosate. Acceleron® seed treatment
technology for corn is a combination of four separate
individually-registered products, which together
contain the active ingredients metalaxyl, trifloxystrobin,
ipconazole, and clothianidin. Acceleron®, Acceleron and
Design®, DEKALB®, DEKALB and Design®, Genuity®,
Genuity and Design®, Genuity Icons, Roundup®,
Roundup Ready®, Roundup Ready 2 Technology and
Design®, Roundup Ready 2 Yield®, RIB Complete and
Design™, RIB Complete™, SmartStax®, SmartStax and
Design®, VT Double PRO™, VT Triple PRO™ and YieldGard
VT Triple® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC,
Monsanto Canada, Inc. licensee. LibertyLink® and the
Water Droplet Design are trademarks of Bayer. Used
under license. Herculex® is a registered trademark
of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Used under license. Respect
the Refuge and Design is a registered trademark of the
Canadian Seed Trade Association. Used under license.
(3701-MON-E-12)

B:10”

For more information visit:
BayerCropScience.ca/Raxil

Trait Stewardship
Responsibilities
Notice to Farmers
S:10”

Raxil® MD is the winner and undisputed seed
treatment champion of wheat, barley and oats.
Its micro-dispersion technology provides
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in strong emergence, superior plant protection
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Score an easy victory over the most serious
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Always read and follow label directions. Raxil® is a registered trademark of the Bayer Group. Bayer CropScience is a member of CropLife Canada.

C-55-01/13-BCS13021-E

Alberta Farmer 1 x 84 li B/W

39

ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

J A N U A RY 2 0 1 3

BULL
BUYERS
e
d
i
Gu
8th Annual Family Day Sale

February 18, 2013

300 HEAD SELL
www.olefarms.com

1:00 p.m. at the farm at Athabasca, AB
Lunch at 11:30 a.m.

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JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

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ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA • JANUARY 21, 2013

MOre HerefOrd
Means
MOre dOcility.

Docility

is a win-win for the inDustry

improveD economic aDvantages anD improveD animal welfare

there is a substantial anD growing boDy of scientific knowleDge on the
effects of temperament on beef cattle.
At the 2012 World Hereford Conference, Dr. Rober Weaber of Kansas State University cited recent Canadian
studies by Nkrumah, et al, in which animals with the worst temperament scores were correlated with lower
feed intake, poor residual feed intake, lower feed conversion rates and higher death rates.

AnimAls with the best dispositions consistently performed more efficiently
thAn those of poor disposition.

In a German study cited, Herefords had the best temperament scores numerically and statistically, among
five bos taurus breeds.

150 Red and Black coming 2 year old Bulls that have
been grown out slowly, primarily on forage.

• Our bulls will not be as fat as you will �ind at other sales.

• They are deep bodied, easy �leshing bulls with lots of
capacity.

• They are bred to perform, yet have calving ease and
possess strong maternal traits.
•

150 Elite Commercial Heifers bred to easy calving
Angus Bulls for 45 days to start calving May 1st.
100% HOME RAISED. THE RIGHT KIND.

Mothers of Sale Bulls Grazing December 31, 2012

• These bulls and heifers have been produced in a high
volume, low maintenance environment. Ole Farms is
now the largest Purebred Angus operation in Alberta.
We run 1600 cows and do not have time for high
maintenance cattle.
• Pro�itability is key in our breeding decisions.
Our goal is to make YOUR operation more pro�itable.

Supplying Cattlemen with the
Quality, Quantity & Selection
they demand, and the service
they deserve.

19th Annual Bull Sale
with Select Open Females

Saturday, March 2, 2013, 1:00pm

45

Red & Red Blaze Polled
Simmental Bulls

At the Ranch, Carievale, SK (heated sales arena)

150 Bulls Sell

20 Select Open Females
• All bulls born, bred & developed right here at MRL
• Large sire groups 1/2 and 3/4 brothers
Pen fulls of uniform bulls in every category
• Sight Unseen Buyer’s Program
The majority of ou
r bulls sell in the
(Can’t make it sale day, give us a call.
$3000-$5000 pri
ce range, and
Almost 25% of our bulls sell SUS.
9
5
%
g
o
to
Commercial Cowb
Many repeat customers year after year.)
oys
• Semen evaluated and guaranteed
• Free Delivery in Western Canada. Cost sharing to the East
(Our trailer is most likely going right past your gate.)
• Sound rugged Bulls developed on a high roughage ration
(Born, bred and fed to work and stay working)
• Extra Age Bulls ready to cover some ground.
Offering 25 fall born long yearlings & January/February born
yearlings
• Genetically engineered to excel for the commercial cattleman.
Calving ease, performance and packed full of maternal traits.

• Affordable Bulls
•

“THE BULL BUSINESS” IS WHAT WE DO!

45

15

Black Polled Simmental Bulls

Fullblooded Fleck Simmental Bulls

Supplying Quality Herdbulls for
progressive Cattlemen for 40 years!
The value of MRL bulls is 40 years rich in history with commitment to
quality, functional, ranch-raised genetics that can only be matched by
the longevity of a breeding program. “No Fluff No Puff ”. Over 600
mother cows managed the same as our commercial customers’ herds.
The 150 bulls on offer rise to the top on the strength of their genetic
makeup, backed by our highly regarded cow herd and one of the top
herd bull batteries in the business. Calving ease, performance, maternal
traits, herd bulls that work in the real world. “Come see for yourself
what keeps the commercial cowboys coming back year after year!”
Give us a call or email for a full color catalogue and bull video.

Announces Their FirsT spring Bull sAle
February 19th at High River at 1:00 pm MST

Selling 100 Two year old Hereford Bulls
30 Angus Bulls will be Offered by Silent Auction on Sale Day
The Sale includes
ALL of the

Anderson Family Hereford Bulls

94Y
BW 65 lbs

49Y
BW 88 lbs

108Y
BW 85 lbs

33Y
BW 102 lbs

3Y
BW 95 lbs

96Y
BW 94 lbs
PO
LL
ED

99Y
BW 92 lbs

19Y
BW 83 lbs

45Y
BW 95 lbs

The Anderson Hereford Advantage still applies

For More Information or Catalog Please Contact Us:

OUTSTANDING COWHERD: We demand our cows work for us, not us for them. Like you, we do not
have time for poor udders, poor feet, poor performance or poor dispositions. We cull HARD!

HIRSCHE HEREFORDS
AND ANGUS LTD

ANDERSON FAMILY
HEREFORDS

VALUE, QUALITY AND QUANTITY: We are selling 70 of the top bulls out of the 350+ Registered
Females we breed each year, that is only 45% of the bull calves born. Our bulls are only offered in our
Production sale, so all the best are here, not one has been sold.

RANCH RAISED FOR RANCH CONDITIONS: We have never chased fads, or lost sight of what
makes the rancher money. We breed for calving ease, mothering ability, easy fleshing, soundness and
fertility, longevity, natural thickness and carcass traits. We use our eye, common sense, performance
records, ultra sound, customer feedback, and the best genetics available.
FREE DELIVERY WITHIN 300 MILES OR TAKE YOUR BULL SALE DAY FOR $100/HEAD CREDIT.
SIGHT UNSEEN PROGRAM, visit with us about your needs and we guarantee the best possible bull
for the best possible price. If you don’t like him, we keep him.

Directions to Ranch : 30 miles south of Calgary or 8 miles north of
High River on Hwy2, directly east of Highwood Auction

END OF THE LINE? } XL Foods
processing now consolidated
at Brooks, after Moose Jaw and
Calgary plants shut down
By madeleine Baerg
af CONtRIButOR | cAlgAry

T

he recently announced shutdown of XL foods’
beef kill plant and fabrication facility in Calgary is no surprise to those in the know.
“No, it’s not a shock,” said Herb Lock, owner of
farm$ense Marketing in Edmonton.
“the packing industry in North america is rightsizing itself. as soon as you have excess capacity,
everybody is losing money. It’s not just a Calgary
thing, it’s not just an alberta thing, it’s not just a
Canadian thing. this is happening on both sides of
the border.”
that view was echoed by Charlie Gracey, a cattle
industry consultant and current board member with
the alberta Livestock and Meat agency.
“We’ve known for quite a long time that the herd
was being sold down,” said Gracey. “It’s always
regrettable to see a decline in what might be seen
as competition. But there isn’t enough cattle herd
to service the plant.”
Lock estimates the packing industry is currently
about 25 to 30 per cent overbuilt across the Pacific
Northwest. Most of the processing facilities were
built several decades ago, in a time when herd numbers were significantly higher, he said.
Given that processing is a margin business,
the only way for processors to make money is to
operate at near full capacity. With today’s herd
numbers at a 50-year low and the three- to fiveyear outlook not indicating much improvement,
Lock sees the XL closure as a “nimble” preemptive move.
Competition for live cattle sales shouldn’t diminished, said Bryan Walton, CEO of the alberta Cattle
feeders association.
“I don’t think the closures are going to have a material effect,” said Walton, noting XL foods still operates the Lakeside plant in Brooks.
Essentially, the Calgary and Brooks plants were
competing for the same animals. selling the Calgary
facilities, which are fairly old and sit on valuable real
estate, makes good business sense, he said.

BSE boost

While BsE has been devastating to all parts of the
beef industry, Lock believes it may have had a positive — albeit short-term — influence on XL’s Calgary
facilities.
“the plants’ lives may have been extended by a

shutdown } page 6

AFAC ConFerenCe

JBs

oPerations, gloBal aQuisitions

at strangmuir farms south of strathmore, Kerri ross (left) and Becky tees spend their days riding through pens checking
on the health of the cattle. Kevin LinK

Testing for bSe worthwhile
FaIrLy LOw } Cost would be about $40 per head, but actual

financial benefits are uncertain
By ron friesen
staff

A

new industry study concludes
a voluntary BsE testing program for cattle could help
boost Canada’s beef exports to asia.
But it cautions that BsE-tested beef
would only be a niche market and the
demand for it might be limited.
testing alone may not fully restore Canada’s beef markets lost to BsE in Japan
and other asian countries, says the study
by the George Morris Centre in Guelph,
Ontario.
But it’s still worth considering, said
al Mussell, the study’s lead author.
“We think this has got potential. I think it
needs to be explored further,” Mussell said
following the study’s release March 31.

“I think it does give the impetus for
people to take a serious look at it and
say, ‘hey, this is something we could
take advantage of.’”
the study funded by PrioNet Canada, the alberta Prion Research Insti-

tute and the alberta Livestock and
Meat agency weighed the costs and
benefits of voluntarily testing cattle
for BsE.
It found the cost fairly low — just over
$40 a head, or about five cents a pound
carcass weight. that wouldn’t burden
processors with huge added expenses
and “drag down the operation of a beef
plant,” Mussell said.
He said Japanese importers have periodically asked for BsE-tested beef over
the past five years, so the demand for it
should be there.
But whether the economic benefits

“We think this has got
potential.”
aL MussELL
GeorGe Morris Centre

of testing outweigh the cost is hard to
say.
a 2005 analysis by Rancher’s Beef, an
alberta processor no longer in business,
concluded BsE testing would increase
the value of beef sold to Japan by $75.71
per head.

• PLEASE GIVE US A CALL, IF WE, OR
ANY OF THE SALE STAFF, CAN BE OF
ASSISTANCE OR TO BE ADDED TO OUR
MAILING LIST
• ON BEHALF OF EVERYONE AT
BOYNECREST AND SKYRIDGE WE LOOK
FORWARD TO VISITING WITH YOU
PRIOR TO AND ON SALE DAY.

As third generation farmers, the Jeffries
look to us for next-generation advice

Dave, Roland &
Ernie Jeffries
Vegetable Growers

Vince Puchailo
TD Agriculture Specialist

TD is committed to helping farmers build for the future.
Dave Jeffries and his sons, Roland and Ernie, know a thing or two about farming. So, when it was time to expand the business, they
naturally chose a bank that knew how to help. At TD, they found Agriculture Specialist Vince Puchailo, who helped implement a
succession plan. Vince’s understanding of the complex process even impressed the lawyers handling the sale. A personalized approach
to agriculture finance, like Vince’s, is something all TD Agriculture Specialists bring. Maybe it’s time you brought one to your farm.

For more information, visit a branch or tdcanadatrust.com/agriculture

Banking can be this comfortable
® / The TD logo and other trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank or a wholly-owned subsidiary, in Canada and/or other countries.

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JANUARY 21, 2013 • ALBERTAFARMEXPRESS.CA

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